Updated the kitchen, repainted the house, and replaced the roof, as well as cleaning up the landscaping.What was the outcome?

Just pay your cleaning person and be done with it.

I think the furnishings ended up coming out really clean, we were thrifty with doing it but between that and the professional photos it made the property show really well.

If your credit is 680 or better, no lates on your credit report, and a clean b.g. and I can get a new investor started all day long given it is the right project.The right beginner project is one where the purchase price is less than 100k, total project cost less than 200k and loan amount around 120k - 150k. 

Seems like short term would likely generate more revenue but not really sure about profit when you consider vacancy and property management fees of ~30% (I would consider remote management but I would think cleaning fees would still be ~$400/mo. which is high).

I've heard of mentees who started cleaning up construction areas on a flip at the end of each work day or picking up supplies at Home Depot and delivering them to the job site.

Offer to refund his deposit immediately as long as there's no damage (you handle the cleaning).

They all look very solid, fundamentally-sound, have clean lines, and are very attractively priced.

I have tried some Facebook groups down there and they are ALL (so far) nothing but spam and scams, or people advertising to clean cars, etc. 

I had two of them and both had a “small room” compared to the other rooms that we rented on the cheap and there was never any shortage of people who were happy to have a nice, clean, comfortable, affordable room to rent.