There are ductless electric units and the technology continues to improve.

Overall, sounds like there is more inventory coming on line in 2025 in some major markets so wondering what some of those leading indicators of a "bottom" might be.

There are other strategies to improve the returns, but again to your point, that is moving more towards it being more of a business.As Jay Hinrichs has said, he only sees real wealth creation and cashflow (at the level he considers impressive) from SFRs when you own 150 or so doors.

Again this is what you could do, but to improve your returns, maybe not what you should do.  

New Haven has very thing single family home inventory, and Zillow only reports DOM for homes and townhomes, so it can swing a lot more than other places.

After mortgage, insurance, property management company, taxes we would probably only make $200 a month total which would go into an account for repairs, improvements and vacancies.

the key is how you structure the refinance after improvements.

you're competing against others for inventory, contractors, etc.  

I now ask myself: will this change improve my long-term stability, or just my short-term numbers?

I can quickly eliminate bad comps to improve the rent estimate.I have Rentometer pro.