You won’t be buying in all cash so the loan that you pick will be very important in this process.  

It's great in terms of location, but the main issue that I have is that there is no public trashcan for the bus stop.This means that people are constantly littering around my property, and I am forced to pick up all of their trash.

Also in the meantime they recommend stopping mail to the mailbox, holding at post office, and manually picking it up (all of which I had to do once when I lost the mail key).

I pick option 1In my opinion, you shouldn't do business with friends.

What they allowed us to do was have a lease signed on the property for the 10 acres of corn with the local farmer that planted the corn and after the corn was picked, all farming activities on the property would be stopped and no farming would be allowed to continue. 

I've spent too much time picking the brains of the STR group at City Hall and think I've got a good idea of where they are at!

So its been 3 months, how many have you picked up and how's it going ? 

You would put up a down payment and the rate wouldn't be as good, but it would only be for a few months until the project was completed, then you could re-fi with the VA 100% LTV benefit with a better rate, and you probably would be getting more cash back then you put in, assuming the property value appreciated more than the costs of the renovation.This would also mean you could get more bids to actually compare with and pick the best one.  

Next, pick your plan for investing.

Most people try to "build a team" prematurely.If you are trying to invest out of state, you are most likely picking a market that a lot of other investors are in.