The joys of real estate: highest and best use.  

In hindsight I can see all the mistakes I made but...pura vida.I do my proformas and try to calculate returns but I don't measure the value of investments purely on these terms like some others who've responded to you.

Most of my clients nowadays are not pure investors.

This is exactly why I'm asking the question, because it may be the case that some of these investors would be better off either purely treating this as a flip or just moving on from this deal if they can't flip it and get their cash back within a few months. 

This is purely anecdotal, but I've noticed that the top performing properties in my area lead with an exterior shot.

Stock picking is gambling pure and simple. 

I have financed a number of STR properties and they will usually be appraised as a pure real estate as vacant value and a cash flow adjusted commercial value, sometime separated as going concern and real property.  

I continued paying what I had paid before, with the additional money purely going to principal.The recast to a lower amount was purely to reduce my committed monthly payment to a point that I could get my property to cash flow if I had to move out (job loss, etc).

There are still some good markets that will provide cashflow but you'll need to have realistic expectations when investing purely for cashflow. 

If so, and you're looking at a purely rental property (not to live in at any point) you could consider opening a self-directed IRA to invest in the new property without having to pull money out and pay penalties?