Nothing against, but I have an issue with snake oil sales people. 

This holds true for realtors, especially contractors (I want one who talks about how he is going to do the job not tell me about how awesome he is when he built this and that and this and that, they talk to much they are snake oil salespeople)

For example, total pollution exclusion that most policies have now....lets make an extreme example and say your tenant decides to start pouring used motor oil into a hole in the ground in your back yard.  

BEWARE THIS SNAKE OIL MERCHANT. 

Once the borrower is tied into these they are quite cumbersome to manage for the borrower and god forbid there is a default of any kind :)  or with the pre pay penalties and the reporting and the covenants to keep a certain DSR etc etc I mean look at all the syndicators who are leaking oil because they cant meet loan covenants.. 

I'm deploying some in stocks, some oil, some crypto.. and want exposure to RE. 

It just costs more.We've almost completely switched back to gloss oil paint for the kind of extensive foursquare trim in the houses we prefer.

Yes, Florida does seem to have an unusually large number of con artists and snake oil salesmen.

Once installed, best to have them on predefined schedules, as they’re only 3x as efficient as gas/oil when they’re working to maintain constant temps versus changing it up/down over time.

If you are going to refinish, what I'd do is sand, clean, and put down multiple layers of oil based polyurethane.I would not stain the wood.