Especially post covid with all the supply chain issues that followed.  4-6 months is a much more realistic timeline and if the builder is off any worth you might have to get in line.  4-6 months is assuming you have closed on the property, permits are in place, a contract is signed, and the weather allows me to start today.  

We manage a few in NJ and are constantly shipping up and/or ordering supplies to be delivered to cleaner. 

If the city takes away the supply then prices will go higher as the demand will still be there in the short run.

I just refinanced an investors STR, he had to supply 12 moths trailing history of the STR income. 

We were thinking of adding an accent wall on the wall our TV hangs on, but we weren't sure if that would even matter on selling the house? 

Supply inching up.

@Aaron Dominy   Building supply chains have eased considerably in the past 2 months, thus the time-frame to build in Galveston has shortened.

Note, of course, that this opinion is coming from a place of the very limited information you supplied in your original post but on the face of it living for $1500/mo in a decent neighborhood seems decent to me.That said, I would encourage you to look at this more long term.

When it comes to rehabs, I’ve seen in the forums a good rough estimate is $20-$100/sqft, dependent supply the severity of the rehab.

These mortgages can be assumed, however, and are non-recourse (if your name is a musical instrument and you were a reality TV star, and made cameo appearances in WWF, this might be the type of mortgage you get for some of your projects, which might ahem wind up being front page CNN news).