I don't expect to know everything by then, but I hope to develop a basic strategy that prevents me from making the most common and costly mistakes that a newbie can make.

We put a sign on every property to: attract tenants, create brand awareness, and to help prevent scammers from using our properties as bait. 

Is it worth it to put in central heat and air?

As of now, I'm still up in the air...no major results to justify an overwhelming positive review yet. lol 

That, and escalation clause prevents you from just blindly offering your best offer out of the gate. 

No window air conditioners or freezers are ever included in the lease. 

Of course - having a w-2 job will never prevent you from setting up an IRA including a self-directed IRA.If yes, how can I fund it?

You can also tell her to call the utility company about the best way to save, as turning off heat and on is not efficient having to run longer blasting out cold air as opposed to leaving it set at a lower temp. :)

That is something I would for sure have to look into as, according to your post, it seems like the timeline for mid-term rentals kind of lines up with the amount of time that we would be gone each year, which would work out well and probably require less of a hassle of trying to maintain the property after each stay for Air BnB.

Almost nobody in the Upper Peninsula has air conditioning though so maybe can save money on just doing a new furnace and not a full HVAC, we'll see.