Artificial turf depending on size of lot and an area with putting for golf.

For instance if you were to look say in Iowa, specifically in Altoona Iowa, if you were to look in the south eastern region of that town, that's where all the newer construction, or relatively new construction is, the people are nice enough they have stable jobs and the lawns look nice and manicured.

Nicely done @Emily Webster VRBO: If you haven’t listed on VRBO yet, you’ll want to capture this audience as well to drive more traffic to your listing.Amenities: Recommend adding more backyard amenities like BBQ, hammock, lawn chairs, table, umbrellas etc.

I believe keeping the NVR box in a shed will be difficult with lawn mowers and equipment at each property so I'll have to protect it but my main concern is the extreme weather Virginia has both hot and cold pending on the day.

Like @Ronald Perich said, it's hard enough to get tenants to mow the lawn, so if you think they're going to take great care of a pool - that's not going to happen.

An REO  agent is focused on servicing their clients in order to receive more listings.....they have to manage/perform routine inspections, obtain lawn maintenance, other repairs, utilities connects, etc.  

I drive around looking for signs like neglected lawns and other issues.

I'm my area, for $270k, I would get over $5k/month with tenants paying all utilities including lawn maintenance and snow removal.

Maybe you can mow their properties lawns, or clean some gutters.

Again, these are people typing 'i want out of my house right now' (paraphrased) into Google, not just someone with a messy lawn who hasn't considered selling until you approached them - they convert much higher than average.