I am looking for a brokerage that is investor-friendly (having investor-minded agents, and a focused investor clientele), use more of modern marketing technology, provide training or mentoring for new agents, and have agents and brokers working in office to bounce ideas.

I am new to REI but I live in Flint, MI and my house was under $70K (mid-century modern behind a major teaching hospital and less than 10 minute drive to 4 colleges / universities).

'round these parts, if we open a wall up, we have to insulate it to modern code.I just insulated a 2300sqft new construction house, total cost was about $1500.

You'll find modern housing units, apartment style billets, family housing and the Navy did an extensive study of natural ventilation and cooling for tropical areas.

The house looks plain on the outside, and I don't get the sense of modernity in any of the design or the exterior architecture of the building.

Up here smooth walls and ceilings are preferred (after the hideousness of the 70s and 80s).In our units we use flat white on ceilings and eggshell on walls with the exception of kitchens, bathrooms and high traffic areas (such as mud rooms) where we will use a velvet sheen on the wall (easier to clean, but not shiny).For "modern" trim we use "perl" as it is not as shiny as semi-gloss.  

We like to have some unique pieces and more of a modern feel.

@James DeRoest,sorry i could not be of help, but maybe if your time permits, you could go by a lighting showroom (no big box stores) and run those questions by them (usually they know about this or have electricians installing this all day). i recommend one specialized in modern/contemporary lighting.in the worst case you got some free coffee, nice ladies to look at and maybe some clearance items or some networking with lighting designers...

This is a lot of work and money compared with tiling a more modern home with an existing plywood/OSB subfloor.Typically to start with in this homes, you also have to pull out vinyl flooring and the 3/4 in. wood plank flooring beneath it, which is typically covered in multiple layers of asbestos-laded cutback adhesive.If the plank subfloor is in seriously bad shape (which we can only know after we get down to that level) we take off the planks, install 2x8 sistering and blocking on the joists, and put in a 3/4 in. tongue-and-groove OSB subfloor, followed by a waterproofed cement board and thinset tile installation.This costs a lot of money even if you do it yourself with your own crew, which is what we do and is the only reason who do as much tile as we do.So, as otherwise stated in this thread, I would also not recommend planning to tile large areas of such homes in this area to any passive investor, and most especially NOT any out-of-state passive investor.

I have since modified my strategy and am looking at micro cabins (cabins that are insanely cheap but cute and modern.)