Just play cool with them so they don't try to stiff you on rent.  

Smaller single resource towns are a riskier play.

Investing in Northern NJ and hitting financial targets often posted on BP is challenging and in some instances impossible, that being said I wont talk numbers here as you deemed them good enough to put the deal in play.

During this process we spec all finishes/fixtures/scope of work, and then provide a final "guaranteed" budget that will only change if hidden conditions arise (code/safety-related), scope of work changes (additional work added above the defined scope), or fixtures/finishes change (price will go up or down, based on the new selection and any re-work necessary).I strongly recommend you find someone with a similar process, who also freely offers up proof of licensing, insurance, 3-party reviews, and client references you can contact.Finally, if it's a long term play and you don't mind spending the money, consider the "phased" approach mentioned by @Nabil Suleiman.

Also, unless you have a ton of capital and you are playing long-term appreciation, then you need a decent ROI.

Your knowledge of the market should come into play in this decision as well.Maybe your comps don't have pools, but maybe they do have in-unit or onsite laundry and your tenant demographic has that expectation.

That plays a role too.For rentals I'm personally a big fan of any sub in the northeast where you can be all in (purchase + repairs) for 80-150K.

But between State of Florida putting a hold on evictions and moving targets on opening up the economy again, I've opted to pause for now to see how it plays out. 

That's how I'd play it as a lender anyway.Furthermore, it's a bit unclear how the depreciated value here comes into play.

I'm lucky that full time job allows me to WFH so that's taken up a big chunk of my time, but for self educating, I've attended a couple of virtual meetups and I'm currently switching between:The Canadian Landlord Guide - Expert Advice to Become a Profitable RE Investor BT's The Book on Investing in RE with No Money DownMy wife and I have also been playing a lot of Scrabble so maybe that counts as self education if my vocabulary gets better?