At your resale price point of $1.3, you'll likely need medium-to-higher end finishes, at least in some areas of the home (appliances, flooring, countertops, etc).

What insurance are you all using for furnished medium term (30 days and more) private room rentals?

Watch out for those pesky annual inspections, though- they'll get you just because they feel like it, after letting the last owner slide for some twenty years.Syracuse is a sort of happy medium between the two. 

This is more like it, it's a medium density area  not much yard for views.

Our rental is laid out pretty nicely and we have about 1000 sqft for a 2 bedroom, the only issue is that we have a 1 car width driveway that can fit about 4 cars but I don’t know if I want to share the driveway with the tenant and deal with the hassle of constantly asking them to move the car when we want to leave.

As soon as you bump up to medium sized multifamily, costs can add up quick.

It's the lower bedroom counts with limited amenities in the community and low to medium theming that are oversaturated.

So how is it that this leads you to believe absentee business ownership (of small or medium sized businesses ) can be successful? 

Investors needs a medium to long-term time horizon for it to make sense.

Lot of great replies on here already - only thing that I would add to consider is getting a few outside opinions from realtors, other hosts, property managers, etc. about the medium to long term outlook for STR regulation in your specific area.