Secondly, as I could make this systematic very easily, I wouldn't wan to get licensed in other states should I expand markets. 

If there is wallpaper throughout the house this could easily be a thousand dollars or more.Painting all trim, base and doors is very labor intensive work. 

I realize this is likely very location specific, so I'd look at somewhere like Orlando, FL where the market is hyper-competitive as a "worst case" scenario.As background, I am very new to the idea of STR properties as an investment option and am trying to wrap my head around how best to evaluate properties. 

Once you research your investing market - join the Investor groups on Facebook for those locales to easily connect to wholesalers in the area, realtors, other referrals etc.

I'm looking at a few commercial properties and I'm confused as to who's numbers to use when evaluating the property.

You'll find your own way to word the questions but taking a couple moments to evaluate the seller might open the door for a deal!

New investors sometimes come at this a bit naive, like imagining that there is need for student housing in a location that there is no need or thinking that they will make a nice place for some students and won't have to spend several thousands to fix it up again next year or just not knowing how to evaluate a property beyond the numbers on the paper. 

So definitely know that your experience, while sadly not all that unusual ... can be very easily remedied!

Now it's easily 20k+ in a competitive offer situation. 

Other people on these forums would slit their wrists if the unit failed to provide enough free cash flow and they could care less about principal reduction and appreciation.The 5%/45%/50% figures I heard from Matt Faircloth here:  And Brandon Turner described expenses being about 50% for a rental property in this video, though he included vacancy as part of the 50%:And I agree that you can't lean on these percentages in making your final purchase evaluation; you have to have the final numbers quantified.