When we are back in NC we want to meet some folks and start networking to see if we can start wholesaling, and buy and hold, or flip, and our ultimate goal is to build new construction  of well-built modern-style, very energy-efficient houses with some types of renewable energy.  

Upscale, modern, space saving things will typically increase the unit's value, competitiveness, and rent, especially in the small units. 

A Biography of George HW Bush -The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World-Spark: How Old-Fashioned Values Drive a Twenty-First-Century Corporation: Lessons from Lincoln Electric's Unique Guaranteed Employment Program-Good Profit: How Creating Value for Others Built One of the World's Most Successful Companies-The Great Mental Models, Volume 2: Physics, Chemistry and Biology-The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success-Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of IntrigueWhat books have you read so far?

The couple you speak of may have done the same, so anyone with experience 20+ years ago before the modern spike in prices is playing a different game than today, may be out of touch, or may be rich and again can afford to play a different ballgame.

Quality furnishings and a decent/modern entertainment set up as you mentioned with high speed internet for streaming movies (night time or for rainy days) makes for an enjoyable experience, and maybe a game system.

One idea we have,  is to build out used shipping containers into nice modern living spaces for college students, connecting 2 or 3 together, with one being a shared living room space and kitchen and the other two would be housing/sleeping units.

Problem is the undertones in your floor are yellowish and the modern look everyone seems to want is white and gray.

The value we add might be completely rehabbing and bringing it up to modern standards, or it could be simply waiting out a lengthy and uncertain transaction on a distressed sale (folks looking for a primary residence to move into would not want to put up with what you're dealing with -- that's why and how you make your money).Have your agent, if you are working with one, make regular, gentle inquiries on how the process is going, never failing to remind them that you are ready to close.Good luck,Vincent

Local court is always better than most forms of modern entertainment.

Trying to digitize admin, do some modernization but overall it's an old building.