In the end, it would have made more sense to hire a couple handymen for a week or two than me spending 3 weeks installing flooring, base and case.

@Van Lam - I think your plan to finish rehab and then rent them out a higher market rents makes sense to do first.

It can eat into your cash flow, but if you're earning high income from your W-2 job (I assume you are if you're buying in all cash), it makes more sense to use your time making more income versus managing maintenance requests as you scale. 

If there’s a delay, it might make more sense to cancel or refund those bookings and use the time to get everything ready for a fresh start.Since it’s Joshua Tree and the peak season is winding down, it’s worth deciding if you want to jump in now or take some time to set things up for a solid relaunch.Good luck, and let me know if you need any more advice! 

Sounds like it makes sense for you to partner, I would suggest: spell out responsibilities very clearly, how you make decisions and most importantly: have a very clearly spelled out exit. 

And since I would like to go back to it being a STR when some of my life calms down in a year or 2, it doesn't make tons of sense to get rid of it all and then start again!

Maybe I am an eternal optimist, but logistically this makes the most sense by far.

It depends on where you want to position yourself in the market and what makes sense from a business perspective in relation to your overhead / operational costs.

@Dustin Horner It does not make sense to make any hires for one 10 unit building, PT or FT.

I would also look at employment/unemployment statistics, and get a good sense of who the biggest employers are in an area.