The idea is it will be clean and level and the buyer can do carpet, tile or laminate.  

And if they're valuing furnishings realize if the house is only marketed to a STR; then it limits the pool of buyers.

Third, the typical person renting a room is not a home buyer candidate. 

Lessons learned are related to the title process I use with sellers and buyers.

thanks for your time and help rent to retirement works directly with build to rent developers like us around the country once they are framed up. you are buying properties pretty much at market value but with a hand holding. you can work directly with a builder or directly with them. they are just an intermediary. they take 5% on what we make as a builder but have a large list of investors and a systemized approach to selling new builds. if you want to get a better deal I'd recommend directly contacting builders and building it yourself. fly to the market. spend 2 days, tour new builds, get a feeling for how it's going. if your builder isn't building multiple at a time then I wouldn't recommend working with them. rent to retirement is a well oiled and well run machine. they've had their ups and downs with dozens of transactions in florida but modified their process. they are well known and established and transparent. if you have a more specific market and feel confident in your ability to vet deals try it out. happy to talk more my info is in my signature. we work directly with them to sell new builds and no organization is perfect but I have good things to say about them as a builder and potential build to rent developer that sells build to rent triplexes and single family homes through them to end buyers in California like the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego 

Lessons learned are related to the title process I use with sellers and buyers.

If they just represent first time single family home buyers and aren’t constantly finding off market properties and reviewing deals, you’ll find a better investment through someone else. https://www.kiavi.com/blog/out-of-state-real-estate-investin...https://learn.roofstock.com/blog/out-of-state-real-estate-in...

As others have said, no REI is totally passive, if you find the right group with all venders in place, the investors that I work with find it can be a pleasant transaction.  

Foreclosure auction buyers cannot walk the property and have no idea of its condition.

Those are buyers not renters unless there is some other circumstance.I think you are right about supply....apartment construction is just about to come to a halt and unless interest rates drop in 1/2 probably won't see that pickup for a while.