There are definitely pros and cons to all situations, you would just need decide what is best for you.Would listing it as a mid-term (traveling nurses, doctors, business professionals, contractors, etc) or a short term rental be an option? 

Kyle Get contractors out there to bid the job...

I now operate Iron Goat Home Services as a General Contractor/Handyman.

I need a contractor to rehab 11 units in Cincinnati.

Examples of pitfalls include purchasing in an undesirable area, not understanding the market values (vs. list prices), not knowing the rental values (current and market), inheriting bad tenants, buying a lemon, going rogue on renting and management with no contacts / systems / no legal understanding of PA and Municipal landlord-tenant laws, not having trusted resources and contractors in place, using out of state lenders or shaky financing, throwing lipstick on a pig when renovating a house and wondering why it's ARV isn't increasing, tenants are renting, etc.

It is what many contractors ballpark their estimates. 

We have about $200K equity in our home, both of us are independent contractors / business owners who write off a lot on our tax returns - so I’m not clear if we have to take what we can get or if these terms seem in the realm of normal.  

Our contractor stopped working while we took a month-long vacation in Mexico due to lack of communication.

For instance work clothes might be a legitimate business expense of a contractor, but usually it's not.

That would be for a garage in a convenient location since these always get picked up by contractors for their tool and material storage.