I spoke with a representative and let him know what my scenario was. He

To my surprise, they built a kitchen (electric stove, sink and refrigerator) in the downstairs wash room.  

Was he a licensed contractor?

It’s essentially a wash, so just ask yourself if youcan invest and receive a return greater than your mortgage.Yes,there are great advantages to having liquid assets as opposed toilliquid assets, but a price can be assigned to that disadvantage,and you can determine your yield accordingly.

Then the painters handle either washing the walls down first with a TSP solution, and paint, or if it’s not too bad, just paint.

That's usually an indicator that you're hiring cheap labor, they are doing a bad job, and you're firing them and starting over with another cheap contractor, wash rinse repeat. 

Face masks, proper distancing, proper hygiene/hand washing.

When I was 25, I bought a “too big” 2400 sf 5 bedroom 3 bathroom foreclosure in the Wash DC area in a nice community.

Equity pay down on your own home doesn't count because that's just a wash. 

@ Michael Otoole I work with investors here on HHI and in Bluffton, in the $250k range in our area the difference between STR vs LTR is a bit of a wash unless you find an amazing deal.