If they're cheap, there are problems with quality, speed or communication.

@Michael Stoltey You clearly don’t understand how REIT’s work, the high quality blue chip REIT’s have excellent corporate governance and are very aligned with the shareholders and are not just paid for fund size.

The main reason I would assume people would prefer contractors is probably the speed and efficiency?

As I always say, "price (budget), timing (speed to completion), and quality (craftsmanship)...pick two".

Keep in mind a RE bubble that was always going to burst that has been sped up by COVID, but higher price points and a trendy area should give you a high chance of quality candidates.

All the neighborhoods near lackland are prime for rentals because of the high quality tenants or airb&b due to the weekly graduations.For flips I think it's important to go after neighborhoods where other people are flipping.

So basically my only hope is to improve the interior/exterior quality if I want it appraised high enough to be able to pull my initial money out?

It's a great article with some quality analysis!

I would personally focus more on the quality of the asset.

There's bunch of trade offs but we invest in CA because it's close to home, high quality, high demand, and if anything goes wrong I don't have to hop on a plane to go see what's going on.