After being an owner of a small hotel out of state I understand the pain of managing property remotely and that's why my first short listing was around 25 multifamily in my area so I don't have a lot of options to go with i.e. if these 100 calls does not work ,I will try the next 100.

Most contractors are a pain in the butt to deal with, and those that aren't tend to be much more expensive, so you are either paying with headache or money.Now, onto an answer, if you can create a steady pipeline of flips, you will be able to make far more money, much quicker than rentals.  

Right now, we have painfully low inventory and increased demand.

Hi @Drew Slew, I'd start with getting a strategy. 500K is a lot of money to waste only to learn this painful lesson.

A lot of times, designers will share their color choices, but understand the light and space of your room is not identical to theirs, so it may not turn out exactly the same.Next, too many colors does become a pain from a maintenance and repair standpoint.  

We were considering doing cash-out refi's on 3 residential rentals to pull out about $300k to beef up our opportunity fund.  3 refi's is a pain and closing costs even through a direct lender would be about $2800 each. 

I'd explore that pain point a little more. 

Wallpaper is a pain in the butts and can cost you alot of money in labor.

The Why: Psychological Vs Financial PayoffsGary’s next question was more incisive.

Living in a place and having someone else help with mortgage is a pain (neighbors/roommates) but easiest way to start the journey.