Check their nightly rate, occupancy and amenities.That will give you a pretty good idea of need and profitability.

It'll be a good learning excersize. 

This is perfectly fine if you are going to be living there a long time, but I see people who use a home as a stepping stool home to a larger home in future and make it very customized to their liking but then when try and sell it, it does not appeal to the masses.

The after-repair value determines if the property is a good BRRRR or flip.

Good Luck!

Quote from @Jules Aton: When I did a seller finance deal years ago on what would become a long term rental I bankrolled the rehab funds then re-financed when it was finished.

@Anthony Sigala my view is the markets that it is easiest to find a 1% ratio are unlikely to be markets where you will achieve good cash flow over a long hold.  

We built a single family home version of a 2 bed 1 bath with surface parking at cost with no profit all in with land for 175k in newark ohio, a suburb of columbus ohio. when we push that to 3 units and closer to the city for our build to rent model the numbers go way better. a 30k slab for a single family home is 30k, a 30k slab for a triplex is 10k a door. we designed a 2 bed 1 bath design at 668 sq ft and it's very good layout even I would live there, but I would never build anything that small again. there's no economies of scale. you need density and shared lines, resources, shared roof shared slab, shared windows, etc the cost goes way down.

If you’re looking for a long-term fix, go for a more robust approach.

OR they are investing in areas they think are good, but that usually aren't.