Here is a link I found that seems to align with your recommendationhttps://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2346591-how-to-r... 

How is the acreage aligned...is it a big square, thus necessitating possibly new roads that will take up some of that land.

I would argue, negative value, after you include cost of flight, food, rental car, hotel, time away from work, time away from family, time away from your REAL role in real estate which is finding the next deal.ALL THAT SAID - I think there is huge value in spending time on the ground and building relationships with your team - going out for beers with your agent, your property managers, your project managers/GC/contractors, taking an interest in what they're doing, reviewing their projects, ensuring their goals and ethics are still aligned with yours.  

Align yourself with the best people to get the best result.

In addition, you could add small canopy's to the top of the windows for aesthetics and also as a sun block.Through both you will get alignment of the windows, some vegetation or color from the flower beds, and added aesthetics for a relatively cost efficient price.I agree with @Gilbert that earth tones might work really well with this very low rise complex particularly since you're wanting to avoid installing grass.

This is a better option in my opinion, as the incentives for the provider and investor are more aligned ... but most are private placements that require accredited investors, which most newbies are not.

So alignment of interest around management and especially large projects and costs can be an issue, too. 

We must align our mission, vision and purpose.  

@Mary GilsonMy other (non real-estate) business also generates most of its income in USD and EUR ... it is a good problem to have at the moment.I'm not going to be much help with your quest for a good property manager - we've decided to grow out own talent because we could not find a PM whose values and operations approach aligned with ours.  

In order to align our goals, we gave him an incentive of 1/3 the net profit when it was all said and done.