But it was sandwich between two homes that were burnt out, and only 5 homes out of maybe 20 on the block were in livable condition.  

I haven't actually heard of a sandwich lease, would you mind explaining the basic premise and how it works? 

They spend something insane like the 250k for a build out for a sandwich shop.

As far as needs in my neighborhood we are a big military town we are sandwiched between two military bases that do summer training so we think eventually we may furnish the upstairs 600 SqFt unit upstairs and possibly do a short/medium term rental but more market research pending but currently for the downstairs we are smackdab in the middle of town and are like .2 -.5 miles away from 5 local schools 2 private and 2 local the rent is currently set at $1550/mo with electricity, gas, water/sewer and garbage included I worry people are getting stickershock and not seeing the included utilities I'm getting a ton of clicks on Zillow in 20 days (350) but only 4 inquires and 1 walkthrough who took an application but didn't submit it

Meetup next Wednesday 6:30-9:00 at the Local in Sandwich if you want to meet other people doing real estate investing locally. 

I'm getting more traction with marketing for sandwich lease options in the last 4 months. 

One default could wipe out 10 performing sandwich leases..  

However, I will say that per the law you can't do a sandwich lease option, as you wouldn't have fee simple title, the owner would.  

The choices MUST BE your own based on the knowledge you gain along the way; and part of that knowledge will come in the form of suggestions.My suggestions:1) Search "real estate wholesaling." 2) Review the terms "rent to own", "lease options", "lease option with assignment clause", "sandwich lease", "sandwich lease with assignment" "Dodd-Frank", and "seller-financing."3) Call local property management companies and ask about the percentage of monthly rent that they charge.

So your sandwich idea is actually more expensive!