The reason I recommend this is because as a short-term solution incase you cannot go full DSCR right out of the gate.

If they know you, have spoken to you many times, and you have always been friendly with them, just explain your points, that there is no legal reason to deny your plans, and ask them what you can do to help get it approved.

I assume there is zero or almost zero appreciation and that’s the reason you aren’t selling tax free?

A reasonableness standard is applied to negligence claims and I would argue a property owner who owns real estate in the Poconos and knows the property is left vacant due to the owners decision to lease the property as a short term rental should know that the pipes are more inclined to freeze and therefore should install heat tracing lines or other measure to ensure the plumbing lines do not freeze.

Reason why is if you go to sell it, people are not going to comp it based on 40 year loan.

This is the heart of the reason housing isn't mroe affordable, that landlords bear these types of costs every day.You could probably find cheaper labor, especially to haul away the junk, but not easily as an out of state investor. 

There are many reasons why I haven't pursued the arbitrage model, but mainly that it takes too long for the ROI after investing all your time and effort into buying furniture and renting and paying utilities.Let's say you rent an apartment for $1500 and you spend $7000 to furnished it.

Do the math at a 6% loan rate.There's a reason many apartment buildings have been converted to condos and sold.

We're fortunate to have an above-average income and live well below our means.This summer, we’ll be moving to Detroit (PCSing in August), and we’ve saved about $120,000 to invest in addition to having funds set aside for the home we’ll purchase in Detroit.The reason I’m posting is that I’m struggling to decide how to best allocate the $120k.

Additionally, any existing restrictions at the town level (there are MANY) will be abolished, unless deemed "reasonable" by the state.