Neither path was completely hands-off, but the returns turned out higher than we initially expected (despite all the lumps and bumps along the way).As for Lakeland, I think @Andrew Haley's observations about mobile homes are spot on.

I love that these homes are in class A neighborhoods, I have seen this strategy work out for investors before but they were at least cashflow neutral. 

I own in the Avenue neighborhood and feel it has the has the strongest prospect for growth. 

The average rental home price I am looking at is between $175K and $250K for a 3 bedroom house that requires minimal work in a nice neighborhood. 

I doubt many tech workers are located in that neighborhood. 

Depending how much of the neighborhood is a hot zone for renting rather buying, and which Property type is performing better than the other (meaning 1bd 1ba 2 floor renting out faster and much more consistently than a 2bd 1ba 1 floor), you can make your choice of those factors as well as other ones that impact your decision for what you wanna do with your investment.

They average 4-5 night stays, keep in mind im not in a vacation hot spot.

When I looked at prices recently they look like they've gone up quite a bit but I know they vary a lot depending on the neighborhood. 

The City of Detroit is block-by-block in many Class B & C areas.In our opinion, zip codes cover too large an area.We use Detroit Neighborhoods, which are much smaller than zip codes.

Owner occ developments there is no value associated to the income approach so these props generally speaking will appreciate a lot more as the neighborhoods are much more desirable. builders the last thing they want to do is sell to investors if they are creating owner occupied communities.. rentals degrade the neighborhood and they will be sabotaging their own values to allow a bunch of investors to buy and rent out in their communities.So when you buy new builds keep in mind if its a build to rent community they will NOT appreciate like owner occupied neighborhoods.. might be best to find something already 3 to 5 years old where the stigma of renters dies down.. that would be best to protect your investment.