But if your budget is tight or your home only needs minor updates, your real estate agent can help you think outside of the box by suggesting simple DIY staging tips to help your home look its best.Bottom LineStaging your house properly can make it much more attractive to buyers, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, and every home shines differently.

I was aware of the egress requirement, but was not considering the door size or ceiling heights.

She has some stock (maybe 50k), some retirement IRA of around 100k which I believe she has started to take and then maybe 20k in her savings account.

My guess solely looking at your numbers is that it's an older/distressed property which means you have to account for more costs in capex. 2nd thought being it's not in the best of neighborhood then you'd have to take into consideration lower quality tenants/ neighbors and maybe increase expected vacancy and late payments.

-PatrickA high yield savings account has a number of advantages.

They do not take into account the revenue from the STR in valuation.Just because you are doing well with it doesn't mean it will work for the buyer.

Compare other rentals with a similar size, location and bedroom count to get an estimate of what the rent would be while you're living there.

I think I went through 3 different people that were over my account because they would quit.

The two 4-bedroom units even have two full-size washer and dryers each! 

I never shy away from accountability.