The next neighborhood over (literally across the street) is pretty nice, but falls in a different township that has higher property tax, and then the next neighborhood (about a 4 min drive and 15 minute walk) is much lower end, and while fine class C-ish area, you can't push rents much, and the village has its own income tax, so you will pay 2% of your net to the village...But back to first comment: take 4-5 days and travel to each.  

So they’d buy the house across the street and make it nicer. 

Megan Luckily the math part isnt too high level just addition, subtraction, some mulitplication and division but we as a community can all help you through it.Leave the complicated math for the wall street quantative analysts and derivative traders.

Second, I look at listing photos and Google Earth Street View to assess the condition further.Third, I determine a rehab scope and run it by my agent.I have my agent, inspector, and contractor walk the property together.

The property has about a quarter mile of street access, and no trees or anything to block it, so I wanted to put something there to give a little privacy anyway, and then these trees obviously have to go, so I was hoping to re-use them.

However, not so far away, we had another investor who tried the same strategy and it failed miserably as comps with standalone ADUs were not adding value the same as in the market not so far away.Research your market, even down to the street in various neighborhoods well. 

In my market there are streets with almost no driveways because lots are only 20-30 feet wide and where there are streets with parking on only one side it gets difficult.So, in a circumstance like that a small paid parking lot could pay off and be WELCOMED by the municipality.

Does Easy Street fund horizontal development?

Hey Kyle, I'd advise running your numbers on the conservative side and google street view(or boots on the ground feedback) the area as much as possible since you are out of state.

I have a client right now that we are buying a house for right up the street from where I live and invest.