Higher interest rates have affected this segment of buyers keeping some of them on the sidelines.

I'll share any insight on that segment of the market that I can to help you get started.Melanie

Someone who's very good at networking and community-driven stuff may not necessarily also be the current expert on websites or Instagram, but as far as training on the actual job, effectively marketing to community and sphere, and actively soliciting referrals, they might be able to help a lot - and those are huge cornerstones of success in real estate.A busy agent might struggle to find time to mentor someone, but a successful agent who's not as full on as they used to be (but who still knows their stuff) could be the right kind of person, and obviously it depends as well on what you'd expect to pay them.One thing to keep in mind is that while it's easy to pick out the big agent names in a community, there's usually a large under-the-radar segment of lesser known agents who may look like your grandmother or your kid's high school teacher and who are quietly "crushing it" in real estate.

I'm guessing we are operating in different rental/tenant segments. 

It's certainly a red flag when tenants request to pay ahead, especially in sub-$1K/month rental segment.

Furnished Finder does publish dashboard stats on the number of inquiries they get in any given area and travel nurses are probably their single largest customer segment so you can find out about your area there.

We used to have a great segment where you could buy properties for under 130k that would be worth over 200k when all fixed up.

We've worked with multiple clients to select and renovate properties in a way that if house hacking doesn't work out or your life changes, you can turn it into a long-term rental.Our property selection process is based on the tenant segment we want to occupy the property.

I decided to divide my answer to your post into two parts: what to renovate, and lessons learned.What to RenovateThe renovation items depend on your target tenant segment.

While this may seem high, appreciation for the segment we target has been >15% since 2013.There is another advantage to high-appreciation markets.