Providence population and jobs are growing quite well and having multiple universities, including Brown and RISD makes it a very attractive rental market.

From my experience as a vacation rental host guests want a place that is convenient to transportation to get to tourist attractions.

It is better to lower rent to attract applicants, then to lower standards to approve applicants. 

The attraction to business investing however has remained low due largely to the unknowns.

If so, I'd focus on taking care of those items that are cheap and attractive to renters, like you're doing by painting and doing flooring.  

Because of this, if one day we decide to be more hands off and decide to hire a PM, I can tell you that it would be very attractive to me if they came to me with a lower rate due to the types of properties I have since I know it's less work than another investor's properties might be, and a flat rate at that, to take care of everything.

Maybe putting up a simple one that would be better than nothing, but not nice enough to attract the neighborhood kids??

See what they each have to sell, how they attract customers/prospect, and the different methods each use to find, vet, attract, reach and hook/capture/shoot/trap or unearth. 

However, I am getting advice in real life that with low income tenants, too many rules will make it hard to attract tenants, and that since the leases are month to month, and I can terminate with 30 day notice, that being conservative and comprehensive is counter productive.  

@Claude BoironThat is precisely what I am trying to determine ... could we use this to be more attractive than a vendor carry, particularly w/r to smaller properties which may be under the radar of most REITs.