Start anywhere—offer to assist, intern, whatever it takes—and absorb as much knowledge as you can.

The lesson to me is jurisdictions can make the permit process to be painful, requiring tribal knowledge.

I see mostly out of state or out of country investors working with New Western in Birmingham because they don't have the knowledge of the city and surrounding areas.

There are people out there who just cruise to places inventing problems so they can get discounts or free vacations after threatening low ratings.

Please free to reach out with any questions.

If you are patient, it will come into focus for you.Best of luck as you get going, and feel free to ask any questions.

@Lauren MerendinoI strongly believe that your chosen market should be somewhere that you can go to in person / have strong personal knowledge of / have family or a network in already.  

With the equity you’d free up, paying off $50k in personal debt and boosting your credit score while freeing up $3k/month sounds like it could significantly lower your stress and open doors for future projects.That said, selling means you’d lose a cash-flowing asset, even if it’s not huge.

Please feel free to ping me if you have any questions or want to chat!

With all the measures they have, it's never been an issue to my knowledge and the neighbors would let me know in no uncertain terms, as they had a poorly managed STR in the neighborhood previously.