I'm wondering what it typically takes to refinance, and if it's a good idea to do so

IMHO, there is NO reason to not be on Airbnb, unless you have a goldmine site that keeps you booked up, and you don't have enough time to handle all the leads from Airbnb (if you have too many leads, then you have a different "problem" of your prices not being high enough typically.)

Inspection costs are typically around 400.

I called up a property manager in the area I am looking to talk about what typical student rentals look like.

Depending on the value of the property you will need to show up with $x,000 in certified funds to register to bid and if you are the high bidder you will need to increase your deposit to y% (typically 10%) of the high bid within a couple of business days. 30 days settlement is standard, so financing is possible.The difference in risk level between private auctions and foreclosures is huge.

Expense %s can be regional so check out what typical for your area.  

Typically something like $70K purchase price, $10K down, 6% interest rate, 20 year ammortization, 10 year balloon.  

Another option, however, would be to essentially lease it out to a short-term management company willing to pay you a fixed amount per month (even outside of ski season) & compare that to what you would make w/ a long-term rental.

I also get a decent number of leads in the northwest and western suburbs that don't make sense for the typical fix & flip buyer but might make a lot of sense for a buy & hold investor.  

Is this typical for small local banks?