However, the bottom line for me is this:  If I'm keeping it for a rental, I'm in for the long haul, so I want everything to function as smoothly as possible and be relatively low maintenance.  

The bad experiences are painful but pretty much all real estate investors that make it over the long haul go through them all so good to knock them out early!

I also sold a gold BMW in 2011 to kick start my Real Estate venture.One of my better decisions that's for sure.Plenty of time for the toys in the future heheThanks

Refrigerators seem to be less and less reliable every year and repair costs are HIGH, I wouldn't mind providing a stove but like it was mentioned above the tenants can leave them damaged or dirty which is another turn over expense.We toyed with the idea of renting appliances but didn't get a very positive market response, maybe the market will start to change.  

All of that concrete rubbish has to be hauled away and new soil brought in.

New washers seem to run 800-1500 not including install/haul away!   

Would it be logical to STR instead of LTR after project is finished and I move out (I no longer have to U-Haul furniture across the US 2x a year and I can look for markets beyond the Southeast and Midwest)?

Plus, flights and rental cars, renting trucks if you need to haul stuff versus driving your own SUV, adds a lot of costs to the project.

@Nick Deshotels in my area I have done lots of tear downs but as the years past I found a company that moves houses and pays me for the house and hauls it away I just have to grade the lot prior to developing it.  

Do I use subject to, yes, I made my first million using subject to, buying pre-forclosures.