Use sheet vinyl or luxury vinyl tilePlease don’t use snap together laminate or carpet.

You could list it on Airbnb, VRBO, furnished finder etc. and see how it goes while you watch the rental rates and decide if/when you want to sign longer leases. 

and these places are not luxury apartments but more older half of duplexes. 

You can oversee this aspect from the background but don't try to directly engage a GC from out of State without having someone tied to your success there to watch what's going on.

I grew up in the real estate industry watching my father raise money with a PPM for large multifamily value add projects and a developments.

I think this site may be geared a bit more toward the avid investor, rather that the weekend warrior type of investors with regular, RE carriersOn the other hand, for myself, watching the RE market is enjoyable for me.I have always attended open houses just to be nosey or nerdy, whichever you prefer. 

You can read more about it here: https://www.bridgemi.com/business-watch/what-michigan-can-le....Regardless of which market you choose to invest in, it's important to understand the area well and identify neighborhoods on the rise.

You can also usually count on rents increasing enough in around 5 years, so that you do cashflow.Of course you have to watch out for over-leveraging and going bust!

Nobody needs 10 luxury cars and his personal chef drives a bicycle to work.

I like your lesson learned, but would just caution you to still watch tightly.