Most of my shopping is done as the stuff I usually get isn't going to be a sale item.

Ashland Auction group has buyers for stuff like this.

Rental insurance covers their stuff and also has a provision for if the place is inhabitable, they can receive assistance with cost of moving or temporary housing, ie: hotel for a few nights.We also had a tenant clog an upstairs toilet this past year and did lots of sheet rock and contamination damage.

Plus other, non-RE stuff when I know that I can't make a move.

A day later, I got word from my agent the offer was accepted.I'd suggest submitting one or more lowball offers on stuff that has been active on the MLS for 180+ days.

Basically, make the same amount of money with less work/time/effort put into it, and spend more time doing fun stuff and more meaningful stuff.

I think people typically like to be settled before Christmas, so you may get someone in there for a mid-month move, but if you don't have someone the first week or so in December, I think it may mean it will be hard to fill before February- because the end of December means that people are occupied with Christmas and such and aren't allocating time to looking to move or packing stuff up.

If you are planning to self managing, having new everything will reduce the number of late night phone calls to fix stuff which in my opinion is the biggest pain starting out.

If you know your stuff, find good deals, and bring them to qualified prospective investors, you'll make $.

To piggyback on what @J Scott said: when you start heavily into looking/marketing for the off market stuff, it can boost your sales agent biz too.