.- Many of these HCOL areas also have strict limitations on AirBnB or short-term rentals... that do not apply to owner-occupants - thus allowing for extreme cashflow potential for house-hackers.

@John Matthew Johnston 80% of the time, it's a thankless job:(You're never fast enough for complaining tenants, nor fast enough or cheap enough for owners.To have any chance of success, you have to be extremely organized, or every day starts with your hair on fire!

We have been working to be extremely conservative with our estimates but with this being our first go at this, any additional expertise is greatly appreciated! 

I finished all the degree requirements only to discover I was extremely burned out and had to complete another year of electives to satisfy a minimum number of credits at that university.

If you start a JV in name but do not give your partners proper control and decision-making rights and the deal goes bad you open yourself up to serious consequences which can lead to SEC violations with extremely high fines.Lastly, you can offer the project up to investors who have no voting or control.  

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.

We've been extremely lucky with our first tenant- she is wonderful.

Wholesaling teaches you an extremely valuable skill in RE: How to find off-market deals.

It really comes down to your goals and time commitments.Airbnb margins have been getting tighter and it is extremely time consuming.

With regard to renovations, I always suggest taking incremental steps to bigger renovations or partnering with someone who has already done a renovation at that level.I've been known to just go for the big rehabs for my personal investments here in Chicago , and during that process, it's always more stressful than it needs to be...As far as navigating the competition, I've found the best thing I can do is get EXTREMELY CLEAR  on what I am looking for; then I am confident pulling the trigger quicky.