Rental demand is super high right now, but I've found that November and December are not the best months due to holiday travel and holiday budgets.  

Supply and demand rule price.

My play has always been student rentals around ASU for extremely low vacancy and value appreciation.Vacation rentals are another hot investment product, mostly in Scottsdale but there are opportunities in other cities as well.

Things as simple as a front door, double pane glass, paint colors, type of paint etc all come into play.

That lets me keep precise accounting of them and understand how that plays out for each property.  

That was when Seller asked for the per diem, and when I challenged him, he started threatening me by saying things like, "You do not want to play with fire, or you'll get burned", and "Don't poke the bear".

Appreciation comes from demand, demand usually comes from growth.

Finally, as this is a pure investment property and not a house hack, lenders consider it a pure commercial play and all but one ask for 25% down and 5%+ rates...any thoughts on this?

You'd be playing Russian Roulette. 

One of the reasons he has bought so many apartment complexes and have always been profitable for him and he says that apartment complexes have always been profitable for him and is now saying to stay away or be cuatious from most other commercial operation.He is currently very concerned about other commercial developments depending on its demand for that type and how long a vacancies lasts and if that location is dependent on a special industry or the demand for it or that type.