Looking to buy a vacation rental. Advice?

[Sami Stevens]

Hello! My husband and I live in California but looking to buy an STR in Utah, Colorado or Washington. It will be used by us 15% of the time, but mainly a full time rental! I'm looking for best tips for getting started and some opinions on tech to help!

We are looking to purchase in the next 3 months - I've used the free version of AirDNA to see cap rates on specific addresses I found on Zillow, but wondering if I should pay to get more of the future market insights they have? 

 Looking for any tips on how to be most profitable. Thanks!