He liked to hike, fish, camp, travel, do home projects, etc. 

Try leaving a plate of Canned tuna fish by the door outside with some water.Your cat is probably not too far away, may be visiting a girlfriend cat who is in heat or something And snoozing outside in the bushes near that house.

In that example used the person provided maid services, swimming and fishing instruction, mail delivery, information about local churches and other things.

Goal is to get one that has equity, covers the nut (PITI) plus a little and you can get your cash out on the refi. 

Looking to understand more about the nuts/bolts of what these folks are pitching.

I get it, they are trying to make sure these properties are safe for human occupancy but as you and I both know, there are way bigger fish to fry in Canton and properties in A LOT worse condition.Just baffles me that someone like me, comes into town, tries to help clean up some properties and I get hounded for things that are not a big deal in my opinion.

Mapping and GIS are great too, but we'll stick to the nuts and bolts here.My question is, with regard to providing high quality, investment-savvy title research, do you also make a habit of jumping down to City Hall or another series of municipal buildings to check for zoning, permitting, and utility issues in addition to your courthouse work?

We go whole lot deeper than just the nuts and bolts of a STR business. 

I built a nice custom a few years ago before lumber went nuts and other componants in Charleston sc historic district 2200sq ft  no garage  cost 1mil  to build plus soft costs plus 500k for the lots so in it 1.6  sold 2.2  so i get the nice spreads.right now in Oregon our semi custom product homes are costing about 150 a foot.. to 180 a foot.. to buildand in florida were we are building dingers those are running 100 to 120 a foot and used to be 80 2 years ago.and you know how cheap they build in Texas and OKC.. starter houses.  

I only Use STR for fishing trips to remote areas that are undeserved by hotels/motels.. this summer I only looked at ones with no cleaning fees.