Hey BiggerPockets People,  I’m new to BiggerPockets, Real Estate, and Investing.  This is my first post and I’m sure many more will follow.  As mentioned above, my family (wife and two kids) have been living in Manila...

Unless you have a builders warranty (not a home warranty from First American, etc) with them you most likely don't have any obligation to make any repairs. 

The contractor needs to be licensed and patient as most likely the lender will make him jump through hoops to get his draws in a timely fashion.

A good old fashion accounting of expenses is far more appropriate to determine if asking rents are appropriate for the market with higher end properties.

I like the retro look and am sure they'll come back in fashion. 

Now this is also important because if the property is sold unfurnished, it has to be furnished for those tenants in LIKE fashion from when they booked it.  

Using a loan structured in that fashion causes a lot of issues and you are facing one of them right now. 

My theory is when Americans first left the city for the suburbs, developers  simply reworked apartment floor plans into SFR's.   

@Jonathan Beaumont I would suggest not taking anyones opinion or going on word of mouth, but instead investigating what makes a strong market, & identifying where to invest based upon those criteria. 2 good places to start would be Milken Institute best performing cities 2018 (look for best performing large & mid sized cities), & markus & millichap 2019 multifamily North American investment forecast (chart of city cap rates). 

Americans don't know how to make Money and they don't teach their children how to Manage it.