I'd like to place extra emphasis on the 45 day time limit - which will be the biggest factor influencing your decision.If you have 285k of equity to play with, you're looking at either buying 1 larger multi-family property or several smaller properties, likely amounting to close to or in excess of $1M worth of property.   

Books/audibles that have helped get the mindset and technicalities at this point are:Long Distance Real Estate Investing by @David Greene How to Win Friends and Influence People 12 Rules to LifeRich Dad Poor Dad Think and Grow Rich [GAME CHANGER]Might I add that I was never much of a reader...?!

They want to be an "influencer".

@Jason JamesPros:Invest in what you know or what to learnBuild your networkTax-advantaged (Tax deferred for Traditional IRA, Tax-Free earnings for Roth IRA)Influence the outcome of your investment (With the stock market, all you get to do is watch.

You asked the one person who has huge influence on them to keep them going to help, and then said.....

Classic case of a city that once manufactured one or more products and had a strong blue collar influence, but now is mainly low income service jobs.  

Byron the lease duration; year, MTM etc seems very influenced by location.

You're not influencing anyone with this approach. 

There is further language in the memo about the size of the rooms and how many people that might influence the number. 

I'm sure you've got a lot on your mind, but if you'd like to connect with a few event planners to talk about what they're looking for (should impact/influence your build-out) let me know and I'll send you a couple names.