They claim they wash dishes in a bucket (we see the bucket) and don't throw any food scrap or other trash down the drain.

The upside of doing it is that we wouldn't have to dish out so much money during the rehab, however I'm sure there are some downsides.  

Military satellite schools are a great way to pick up credits, but select a school for the degree and ensure credits will be accepted from other schools, all will have limits.

If one person cooks dinner, does the other person do the dishes?

His supervisors at work spoke highly of him;  they provided him with dishes and furniture for his place. 

You'll be supplying toilet paper, paper towels, coffee, dish detergent, laundry detergent, and all of the consumables that STRs usually provide. 

Look at Google earth and go back in time to look at satellite images of flooding to see what it looks like.

If you don't plan on managing the rental yourself (i.e. changing the rooms between guests, sweeping, vacuuming, washing dishes, laundering the sheets and towels, etc.), then you'll need to budget for a property manager. 

Mandatory office meetings every Friday, where the topic most often discussed was not leaving dirty dishes in the sink.

.$5,000 over budget is not a huge deal, unless you are working with razor thin margins.You can get low end stainless look appliances (french door refrigerator, range, over range microwave, and dish washer) for about $2,200).