You should not get too much competition from the typical first time home buyers because they get scared away by the large initial repair bill, evidence of water damage or mold, missing appliances, broken stuff, non-home-warrantied HVAC units, etc..

My opinion: do the least amount of physical work possible (leave that to others with that expertise), hire good land planner/architect/civil engineer team and you do the design/land planning (find out what lot size is best from builder/brokers), get the subdivision map approved (that's the document approved by local city/municipality that approves the single lot be divided into many smaller lots), sell the land+map to builder.

I had a similar situation where the tenant damaged the carpet but we replaced with a slightly more expensive vinyl plank (we had pretty cheap carpet in).  

It seems the owner is an investor that just wants to be rid of the property.The damage is fairly extensive, and obviously I'm going to have a large rehab budget on this, but there's room for profit: the listing price is about $90,000 below local comps that are sold as-is, and $120,000 below improved properties in the area.Trying to figure out how to post pics from the mobile app.

Combine OK's 8% + vacancy in one of the hottest rental markets nationally in the last 30 years,  its notoriety for storm damage there's likely lower hanging fruit in other markets. 

I was thinking of putting in the lease that they'd need to pay for repairs to their hose if they get something stuck or if we know they damaged the vacuum (perhaps from sucking up used cat litter). 

Vivek and David are right that your physical distance and unfamiliarity with the area add significant risk to your investment.  

Late /no rent payments, roommates might clash and you/PM have to deal with complaints, more likely to damage because lack of a sense of ownership.

Landlords,If you want free consultation time to have any of your properties roofs/gutters/siding inspected for damage cause by the elements reach out.

Must appraisers physically inspect the building to be able to provide an official appraisal, or are they able to perform an appraisal off-site?