You're young and have plenty of time to get it right.

Then stick to your guns.

Wondering how to go about getting this done. 

The first year of any STR is going to be lean.

A well-structured deal could allow you to get in with little to no money down while leveraging your construction knowledge to drive profits.Regarding financing strategies, the sky is the limit if you’re willing to be creative.

Then when I exercised the option within a few months.

I'm sure I could go to some midwest markets or even some more depressed markets in my region and get better pricing, but that's out of my wheelhouse at this point in my life as I have no desire to learn new markets when I'm closer to the end than the beginning. .Sure, obvious but over looked.

Some appraisers will combine the square footage and go that route and make adjustments.

Quote from @Heather Luu: Unfortunately, you would have to re-key the locks.Here's another option.

As a new investor, your best bet is to start small with an app like DealMachine or Propstream so you have direct control of your options.