I manage about 100 STRs in the northern Utah region and after years of having really poor VAs, I decided to take the best of the best and form my own team which has grown exponentially now and we offer services to other hosts.This VA group is stellar.

When any little hiccup comes along that most of us did not financially prepare for we Demand the GuvMint do something, like my stock portfolio dropped 25% today in 10/87, so drop interest rate to Zero, thanks Maestro Greenspan, or again in 3/2000 when Yahoo.com didn't somehow grow into its projected 30 trillion dollar market cap based on its PE of 700, drop rates to Zero and keep 'em there for 22 years except for brief interludes of sanity (inflation got above 2%), or in 2008 when no one with a pension fund in America took any damn responsibility/oversight and gave their retirement funds to crooks to buy whatever ratings agency rubber stamped dogshit inverse synthetic CDO they could get a commission on, then were shocked, laying on their fainting couch clutching their pearls when the financial system reliably imploded, so drop rates to Zero again and start Monetizing/printing the debt, and now with the most predicted pandemic in history, Americans hadn't saved a damn cent so we cried to the GuvMint, send us 7 Trillion dollars now, I need a new Lambo!

For these investments, if they are both properties you are able and willing to buy, I would make a decision based on revenue/expense assumptions.

I was driven through 38111 zip code by a local, @Alex Craig and he explained street by street how different the houses, tenant base and rents were.

A DSCR loan, or Debt Service Coverage Ratio loan, is underwritten to the property income instead of your personal income/taxes/debts.

You go visit them, let them know you're serious. 99.9% of the people in the other city just think you're a fugazi, huffing & puffing from across the internet. 

Take a look at the list and keep in mind that increases are based on what they used to be priced at (growth) not at relative cost to each other.

A financial planner, CPA, and others may be better resources for you in deciding which is the best play here based on the immediate health needs and life expectancy.Hope this helps. 

For materials and/or services for any of my investment properties where the contractor/person does not give me a receipt, I do one of two things:1).

DSCR loans are based off of down payment, credit score and either actual or market rents so it helps to supercharge an investor's real estate goals and net worth.