Long term cheap financing is key, and today's rates are still pretty good.The vacation rental market can also be a great way to boost returns (1% is achievable), but you'll hiave higher costs since you'll be suplpying furniture, silverware, etc.I'm pretty heavily invested here and looking for out of state rentals as well, but the risk hasn't really justified the returns yet.

@Erik Sell I believe furniture, area rugs, appliances, etc. have a five year class life.  

My biggest concern with lockbox showings is that the real deadbeats / tenants from hell know what to say (lie) to get a showing, what might one do when you give them key access and time to move in enough furniture in to say, " we're tenants" and create a lease and a receipt for cash to show the cops?

Where did you rent the staging furniture?

They will tell you how hard the surface (coating) is, but since the underlying wood is soft, dragging a piece of heavy furniture without a slider will crush the underlying wood and leave long dents (technically not scratches, I guess, if the surface isn't broken).IMO, your rip out & replace estimate sounds way high, at least for my area.

Now it might be painting and moving furniture, but push for a job where you are going to learn the ins and outs of student housing.3.

@Rick Baggenstoss Not possible on this rehab ;-) Eight 30 foot dumpsters were used to clean out the trash and furniture.

We stage all of our properties, but we find that it's much more cost efficient to own the furniture and do it ourselves.In terms of a fair price, if we're talking about a 1500-180 sf, 3 bed/2 bath house, I figure a typical stager will incur costs of about:- $250 Move-In- $250 Move-Out- 2 Days of Work to Stage and Destage- $5000 Worth of Furniture Used at Least 10 Times (so $500 in Furniture Costs)If the stager is getting paid $500/day (that includes a helper), you're probably looking at about $2000 being a fair price.

Nice furniture, but I am not keeping the property.I also buy/sell storage units, buy leftover estate sale items etc anyway.

I went by the house today and there were no cars outside and from what little I could see from the front window I couldn't see any furniture.