There also seemed to be a lot more room to renegotiate management or purchase contracts versus residential where people tend to tell you things are set in stone. 

The biggest changes were simply making the place new buy re-painting in neutral colors, replacing some very bold colors they had before; such as the dark red dining room.

I average around $800 per room.

Running out of wiggle room for those to sell breaking even after all the fees stacking on them. 

Upon receipt of these complaints I'll personally check the temp splits ("delta T") in several rooms to confirm they are still within the acceptable range.

Placed functional antiques in every room, an antique persian rug, a few animal skins.

I'm not sure what all these negative posts about STR are about, but if you get in the right room with the right people, it'll change how you think on the current STR real estate environment.  

One blessing and a curse of being in the Great Plains is there is plenty of room to expand so far. 

My investment properties are easy to claim taxes on since they are 100% investments.Do you subtract the room square footage you live in and claim the rest as investment?

Make sure you have enough room.