Considering they are brand new, with a finish out well above and beyond the rest of the neighborhood I don't anticipate "nobody else wanting them" Thanks for your sarcasm, though

Pay $1.5 million, tear it down, spend $3 million to build a brand new monster.

It's more of a luxury property but supposedly they can perform really well as full time rentals.

Is this consistent with what I should expect to pay for the returns I had performed?

Your point about long-term mindset really resonates with me; it’s crucial to consider how a property will perform over the years rather than just the initial cost.

Under the IRS rules, a person  qualifies as a real estate professional if: (1) more than one-half of the personal services the taxpayer performs in trades or businesses during the tax year are in real property trades or businesses in which the taxpayer materially participates, AND.....(2) hours spent providing personal services in real property trades or businesses in which the taxpayer materially participates total more than 750 during the tax year.Like @Greg Scott and @Russell Brazil mentioned above, I don't believe that you would qualify as a REPS, but if you are going to try it, make sure you document it very well (i.e. with some kind of proof, like time cards, mileage forms, and/or receipts, etc.) so that just in case you do get audited, you at least have something to provide to the IRS agent. 

At the end of the day, everyones ultimate goal is to become the bank and simply lend out a pile of money and collect a return rather than having to do the grunt work of making these assets perform.

There are many long-term rentals, and rents are relatively cheaper here but considering the current interest rate market I am not sure how well they're performing.

Greetings to the BP group. I am from northwest Florida and very green to real estate investing. I have been listening to various audio books on investing for the past week (6-7hrs) a day. I'm not entirely sure as to w...

It won't perform as well as it could, but it checks the box as a property with c/a which may be all you need for flipping it.