This is a fine needle to thread because at this size, you very quickly start competing with high net worth individuals who are seeking summer homes. 

Start with durable, high-quality basics: plush towels, soft linens, and a fully stocked kitchen with sharp knives, pans, and essentials like oil and spices.

It's very difficult to get SFR to cash flow these days with interest rates as high as they are.

Now that is a very high level example but the appreciation is not gone if that makes sense you will capture the ballpark same appreciation if the properties are comparable.  

Most of my CFO clients that are in residential development are looking for IRRs (usually over a minimum 5-year period) in the high teens and the commercial developers are looking in the low to mid 20% range.

I think the key to getting a good start in REI is finding a way to have a high 9 to 5 income and using a good portion of it  invest in your real estate endeavors. 

Also, which choice is better for you highly depends on what your real estate goals are and the experience level & skillset of the specific agent.Traditional agent and Redfin Agent could essentially be the same thing in many cases.

While I don't object to spending money to do one's due diligence, I don't know if $500 is called for when you can get very high quality syndication groups/meetups/information for free.

Question: assuming an ideal brrrr that has all investment extracted at the refinance, why would you choose a low cost market over a high cost market?

We don't pay vendors by credit card or cashapp because it is far too hard to keep the accounting straight with a high volume of transactions to do that.