The downside is if you dont, you have to "raise the price" back in the MLS.

The down side very heavy matienence  ,a lot of turn over. it depends on ones appetite for the product.just my two cents Alex

Beside the maintenance of the machines the downside I'm worried about is in a 4U with 8-12 people in it folks might be casual about hogging the laundry with partial loads or the one unit of legacy "low functioning" tenants letting in their friends. 

What were the upsides/downsides you encountered?

The only downsides I can see are potentially higher vacancies and minor complications/additional forms when writing the lease.

The downside of Airbnb is you can't screen more thoroughly, but the upside is you have Airbnb support and the Aircover program to help if needed.

For investments, think more about guarding downside than the upside.

What would be the downside of being highly conservative with the rehab estimate for purposes of the escrow?

In essence, a bi-weekly mortgage obligates you to pay more towards your loan.The downside, which you might have guessed, is that you end up paying more over the course of the year, i.e. you have to come up with more money towards your loan. 

The downside in an expensive market like the Bay Area or New York is that often the cash flow isn't there.