There is no silver bullet.

It turns out that nothing is more of a waste of time, energy, and money than this, money that could have been spent elsewhere.

These are entirely relationship-based and do take time and energy to cultivate but are very lucrative once you cultivate them.

But it takes time and energy from internally motivated people who take responsiblity.

It was kinda pricey so I swallowed the bullet with a property manager to avoid headaches.  

Your journey into short-term rentals sounds like an exciting shift—I can feel your energy for taking on a new challenge. 

What I do have is relentless energy, focus, and the drive to succeed in real estate.I’m diving headfirst into multi-family and commercial real estate because I know this is where true wealth is built.

Convince yourself that there's a better than average chance that you will lose, and if you can live with the time, energy and money spent if you do. 

My first question is do I pick a good, better, best system that costs from less to more $$ and do I justify the more expensive energy efficient system to grab a little higher rents since tenants will save money.

The police love to claim it's a "civil matter" so they won't have to spend time and energy on it.