What amenities are they doing that you may be able to add to compete?

Biggest thing is always going to be managing your cash flow.

Silver Spring offers proximity to Washington, D.C., great schools, public transit, and a thriving local community.

I don’t think well maintained, well run properties that have rents at or close to market value should ever be that difficult to sell.

The landlord is required to repair EVERYTHING!

Since they can't do each property individually, they use comparable sales to make broad generalizations to determine percent changes.

They currently have under $1M in leverage on the assets but are looking to get a line of credit / portfolio loan to encumber these properties or other properties they acquire.

Here's a link to the data: https://mred.stats.10kresearch.com/infoserv/s-v1/vwxv-Zs5What this data shows at a Macro level is that the Chicago market is doing fine, but the market is too large to use that data to make any decisions about where you want to house hack.

Can anyone recommend a company that offers a builders risk policy to cover the construction period but then will also allow a cancellation and refund after work is finished to convert into a standard landlord policy.  

But, nice to hear from you.