My business partner and I have a monthly fix/flip forum we hold in Scottsdale and mainly just work with flippers/investors. 

Again I am not advocating for this company and each person needs to do their own DD, all I am saying is I appreciated someone seeing something, calling me on it and having a conversation about it. if @Cheryl Abram  lost 100% of her investment then these must not be first position loans.. as even if a rehab fix and flip fails you still have SOME value in the assset its not nothing.

Unique pieces are great for "Flair" and individuating your property but if it fits in a suitcase and isn't fixed to the wall or floor then it will not be long for your STR.

Can fix the water damage in the basement yourself.

If the old wood siding is a standard type, that you can fix(where necessary) easily, that's the way to go. 

To leverage my background, I joined an investment brokerage that specializes in Fix & Flip and investment properties.Has anyone else made a similar transition?

(Fix it up, take beautiful pictures and be first to hit the spring market?)

We plan to come back live in it the other 6 months, fix it up more, repeat that process until we can find another deal that makes sense for us. 

Problem found by expert, but you chose to not fix the problem by expert but by tenant.  

The third house is financed at 4.75% interest fixed for 30 years.