He currently holds H-1B visa and waiting on his green card.

You could clean the houses between occupancies. 

It is a single family home in a quiet, residential neighborhood with no HOA and we have a property management company that takes care of it (cleaning, bookings etc.).

The property managers call me and tell me they can find someone to clean the property for around $1800.

David Greene wrote a book on investing out of state.

New kitchen and bath vanities are white. we have cleaned everything and have not seen signs of activity until last night near the front door. 

Make sure the contractors understand they are responsible to remove snow to access their work.More cutting, prepping, etc. work will typically be done indoors so make sure you hire a contractor who likes to be clean and won’t turn the entire interior into a personal workshop/storage shed.Figure extra $$$ for temp enclosures and heat if you wish to do exterior painting, masonry, etc.It’s darker later in the AM and earlier in the evening so make sure you have a lot of good, temporary lighting so you can maximize the amount of time your guys are working when they are actually onsite.Planon missing a few days here and there due to a “snow day” when guys can’t make it to work due to a snow storm.

In real life it was tore down and city cleaned everything up. 

I'm in NE Ohio and while I don't plan to completely "self-manage" (ie, do maintenance/cleaning/etc. myself) I do want these properties to be close enough that I can A) check them out personally when needed and potentially tinker/add improvements on occasion myself AND B) if they are vacant for a weekend, go and enjoy some R&R on short notice. 

House ARV now is $320KIts the green house :)Motivation is key!