Profits do not justify their effort even with the ADU addition in this case typically not being hands off .Here is a list of things that make ADU additions a less than optimal RE investment but the value added and starting with tens of thousands negative is a big one that needs to be well understood. 1) The value added by the ADU addition is often significantly less than the cost of adding the ADU.

in such case, optimizing rent justifies longer vacancy.  

@Pamela M. how collectible is this person?

One hill I will die on is optimizing for minimal assembly.

I do understand real estate is not a " passive" investment and does take hands on work with regards to even managing a the property manager.My initial thought was/is (given my current status) that the optimal strategy would be to look into turnkey properties to get started and once I move back into the states get into/invest in more areas of real estate investing.  

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A balanced approach—leaving some 401(k) funds for diversification while allocating after-tax dollars to real estate—can optimize tax efficiency and meet retirement goals.This post does not create a CPA-Client relationship.

It is most optimal to do this somewhere with high exit values, since cost to build and effort are about the same everywhere. 

I just picked a Luxe collection medium queen and it is $1899.

No way is this a scheme to keep EM for the seller..Anytime I have had EMD disputes it usually gets solved with a 50 50 split since I know what will happen.. what happens is exactly as you describe.. money is to small to realistically hire an attorney to collect..