Do I think this particular area of town will improve over next 5 to 10 years?

The location there in Acres Homes is one of those transitional areas that is improving.

Purchase a property that has no or favorable HOA, then you have a place to stay for your vacation trip yourself, and since it's advisable to stay at your own vacation rental at least once a year, this gives you a chance to update and improve it while there (or failing that have your friends or family stay at a discount and post review of what they find.) 

The colleges & universities are all putting money back into the community to revitalize / improve the city as well.

Vacancy $7,166.67/monthCommission : $44,000 ( Assumes a 10 year deal, no rental increases, commission is 6% years 1-5 and 3% years 6-10)Tenant Improvement Allowance: $15 - $20 PSF or $75,000 to $100,000."

if you can buy a smaller property, you might not have as much upside, but you can improve your property for less money. 

I'm going to invest into it to improve business.

I'm thinking we can reach $650/mo as the area improves, thinking that current rent would be closer to $580-600 starting off.

Assuming a 30 year mortgage, 4.5% interest rate, 2% appreciation, 0 improvement costs and about 3% for sale of the property, you'd have about $220K in hand plus cash flow, or an equity multiple of about 2.27x.Without the hold period estimate for the syndication, it's hard to compare.

I simply explain to the seller that I will be improving the value of their collateral.