Capital Improvements - I've spent a lot this year improving units during vacancy turnovers.

That being said, consider putting 25% down instead of 20% down as it should drop your interest rate by about 0.5% and make the property cash flow much better.  40% is overkill IMO, the improvement to your interest rate is negligible at best. 

Through my research I’ve found traditional bank financing may be the route to take as they have better structure for exits(less yield maintenance concerns) and loans include funds for improvement.

When my home goes up 30% in value in 4 years, not because of population growth, its because you need 30% more u.s. dollars to buy my house, not because it's actually grown in value or was improved or made nicer.

If you do that, your cash on cash return would be dramatically improved leaving you more funds / opportunity for your next deal.

@Lyle Cooper, Much depends on your adjusted cost basis in the property (your original cost plus capitalized improvements minus depreciation). 

I can just provide the list of all the inventory and improvements that I made for the property and depreciate everything in lump sum.

If you want to build a good portfolio of highly profitable STRs, buying a 3 bedroom or making compromises on size and location when in 6 months you can save up enough to improve both, feels like an early mistake.

.- Limited upside (no sweat-equity)Pros:- No improvements are needed.- More longevity (Easier modeling of CAPEX)- More lucrative/easier to rent.Did I miss anything?

And it's great that you're so open-minded to remotely owning out-of-state real estate.The Northeast has a lot of high-paying jobs - the best thing you can do is save your income, then take that capital and re-deploy it to Southern STR real estate.I'd strongly suggest NOT getting a property manager (waste of money) & always looking for ways to innovate & improve - there's a lotta money to be made in this game!