Average rents for a well maintained 2 bedroom apartment are easily $1000.  

It has done well. 

I currently use Wells Fargo and it’s a pain in the butt to keep going there in person and setting up a security deposit account.

We do well with ours in Denver and Colorado Springs, for instance.

With your considerable experience and, I'm assuming, strong credit score, you would be well-positioned to receive high leverage and low rates from most private lenders.

But recent projections suggest that may not happen after all.While mortgage rates are still expected to decline some later this year, projections from Fannie Mae, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), and Wells Fargo now show them stabilizing closer to 6.5% by the end of the year (see below):That means if you’re holding off on buying a home in hopes of much lower mortgage rates, you may be waiting a while.

It is always tough, I was talked into renting to my family and it did not go well.

I'm a huge fan of San Antonio as an STR market, but it is, like most "mature" markets, very sensitive about WHAT performs well. 

I certainly think that’s a great option as well.

I've done a lot of value add as well so that helped speed up the process.