Assume you never met them at the property, and fielded 1 phone call from them.

Is the property & tenants mostly easy to manage or is it taking up a lot of your time?

Another thing to add is the regulations, HOAs and Cities are imposing a lot of regulation on short-term rentals or rent by a room, I have seen some HOAs regulate the amount of people authorized to rent the property too.It requires to do a lot of due dilligence to begin with mainly in such big house. 

I am happy to share that I recently came across a solution called Property Llama that is a huge step forward for folks like us..

As far as a DST goes for replacement property, it can be a great potential solution for those who are no longer interested in the traditional responsibilites of ownership any longer or who may be having a difficult time finding adequate replacement property or properties. 

I wonder with Canadian economy struggling if there is potential to purchase distressed properties that could be converted into long-term rentals or successful AirBnbs (especially in the cabin markets that have been hit hard).

I'm a new property manager, have been hosting my own house on Air BNB for just over a year.  

When I found the property I simply extended the radius of my search and tadaaaa "duplex" cought my attention and especially for a $350k purchase.

HELOCs typically do not go above 75-80% of value and since the property was purchased recently they would not see that equity unless you did some major rehab to the property.

Here are some pictures of the properties that I have there to get an idea of the style of properties that I have with parters.