Do you know what the downside is of going with Citizens?

The real downside is that you don’t get to meet them, but the upside is you just saved an hour of your time (or in your case, the agent).

This allows us to hedge our downside risk in the event that they default.

The tenants often stay for many years.On the down side, the rent to value ratio in these areas is typically worse than in C areas.I find both areas can appreciate similarly.You can succeed in either C markets or B+ markets. 

I really only see downsides with this. 

Downside, I'd still be stuck with the 8% interest rate.

As you pointed out the downside of going this route is that you are financing the construction.

Only downside I see so far is it's more than 2% invested, and we don't know the full scope of renovations needed yet (side note, how does one do that?

There is historical data and ways to project future expense growth but best to stress test your model (base case, upside case, downside) To be clear your base case should be a reassessment linked to sale price unless you are using a drop down.Will doing a major reno allow me to lock in tax rates for 15 years?

Many of the cabins seem more turnkey and I am wondering if it's worth the renovation cost or what are the upsides and down sides of this .