The returns, at least from the numbers I am seeing, are very appealing.  

The garage conversion is appealing to there market especially with per diem and year long contracts they sign.

But to answer your question the most appealing would be downtown albany.

What are the challenges and appealing things.What advice would you give to someone looking into pursuing this path?

This is the mean rent for houses of this sizes in the area, but they are all much newer and have far more aesthetic appeal.

If you are a lowball offeror or if the seller is just in the clouds, you need to wait until they start to see the money falling into the ground by sitting on the market so long.I agree and disagree (respectfully) I agree with what John is saying, but I also disagree with it because you can offer 100k less but maybe your offer is more appealing to seller in other ways, I know all of us have bought properties where we were not the highest offer...

Before my wife and I moved the family to Buford, GA, we wanted to rent for a year to see if more rural living appealed to us.

I’ve heard some people say that you can do small things like ripping up carpet to expose the hardwood or upgrading window dressings like curtains, but are there any other smaller renovation projects that have an oversized impact on the appeal of the property to your renters?  

However, if I bought it and leased it back to them it wouldn't be as appealing to the owners.

I'm trying to appeal Google's decision, but I'm not hopeful.