I have bought plenty of bad deals: I overpaid, rehab ran 30k over budget, appraisal comes back low, contractors from hell, you name it - but real estate has that thing, a few years later it does not even matter anymore, even if you overpaid for the property.Get comfortable not knowing everything before you start.

So I suggest getting a ‘best guess’ figure based on several sources (Airdna, Rabbu, STR Insights - don’t rely on just one) and then build in some conservatism and see if you are still comfortable what your pro forma kicks out.

So I would definitely say getting into a property if you can comfortably do so is the best option.

Get out of your comfort zone.

Get out of your comfort zone.

It's helped me tremendously... just the case studies you cover alone are helpful in the corporate work environment.

Make yourself comfortable with both the contractor's ability and with their price.

But you may be more comfortable with earthquakes, or tornados than hurricanes. 

After renting out the finished basement and one of the main units, we'd be paying a very comfortable amount for our part of the mortgage, and upon moveout we'd be breaking even with PITI + maintenance, capex, vacancy which is what we wanted to achieve.

Cool , good though to brain storm here as you get fabulous advice.. but next time see if you can JV locally and then will feel more comfortable