You could shadow someone doing a rehab, especially if you are willing to put in some sweat equity.

Looking back, they weren't so ridiculous,but I learned how to better assess estimates as we put in blood, sweat, and tears ourselves so that was worth it.

Being able to monitor/review cleans remotely was a huge thing for us (made it worth the fee), but the inventory tracking feature they've added has been an amazing addition to our workflow.I am surprised by how many guests actually use the checkout notification, but it's also been great for us and has even helped "convert" a few would-be 3 Star ratings into 5 Star ratings.If you have a fantastic cleaner who will be with you forever and you can trust to handle everything you need then don't sweat it, just use a shared calendar and some texts/emails.

The Great Lakes area offers much better returns, and even more if you can put in some sweat equity and self manage, which we would not be doing. 

My value came in the form of some rehab costs, sweat equity, property management as well as opportunities for bank lending in the future (current refinance) whereas it's more difficult for my father who is retired.What was the outcome?

The appraiser ended up valuing my house at $385K, 10%, or $41K lower than what I purchased it for.As a former state-certified appraiser myself, I understand the ins and outs of appraisal as well as the sweat-shop mentality of producing residential appraisals (commercial appraisals have much more time spent on them - which was my area).

It's been so much hard work because we've done all of the labor ourselves. 15 weeks of working 6 days a week, 8 hours a day, neglecting home responsibilities, blood, sweat, and tears! 

Find a flippable property, give it some sweat equity, live in it for a few years, then sell it and use the profit for a bigger home.

Our realtor didn't think we would be able to get them down like we did--we gave her the cold sweats ; )

Had no other projects at the time, sweat equity at its finest!