When I took the early withdrawal of about $200k (about $130k after taxes and fees), the purchase projected to cash flowed $20k/yr at COE, and had a baked in value of an additional $100k above the asking price at COE.

The house was fresh on market and I was able to act quickly on it and lock it up at list price before more competition hopped on it.

If you're working with existing cabinets, consider giving them a fresh coat of paint or refinishing them yourself to save on replacement costs.

They may need to pay their agent out of their own pocket and they may not have the money for that in addition to the down payment (buy-side commish is usually baked into the sales price and paid at closing from funds to the seller, so the buyer can roll it into their loan and finance it rather than paying out of pocket).

I haven't heard of the "Binder" technique before, but it sounds like a great idea.As for increasing the Studio ADR, we are considering offering guests a half a dozen fresh eggs for breakfast since we have chickens. 

In one of the closets, The contractor said he bought a cleaning supply called fabuloso, then warmed it or heated it up, and let it sit in the closet so the fresh smell got absorbed by the walls?

Operating as a STR is icing on the cake.If just buying an already performing asset, I'd expect that to be baked into the price.

They scheduled schooling right before the test so it was fresh in their minds.

The quote comes in at $4,850 to get the property back into acceptable condition without all of the trim and door repairs/replacement.Do you pay the ~$5,000 and renew the lease for tenants that pay on time or start fresh (with repairs and finding a new tenant)?

Mostly small things, biggest things have been a new electric panel, appliances for one unit, fresh paint for one unit, new garage doors.