@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.  

CA has more than half of the nations homeless/unsheltered persons. 

I would imagine Long Beach is complicated to get into the STR game but I don't personally invest there so not sure.

You need to make sure you're working with someone whose sending you personalized deal flow that actually meets your buying criteria.

Due to the current interest rates, you probably can't live for free, but you can definitely learn how to house hack in that first year, reduced your personal housing costs, learn the rent by room/co-living strategy on-site, and then probably break-even after move out, but most importantly, it is possible to make that work in 2025 with today's rates.It just takes being open-minded and willing to be flexible for the 1st year.  

We are now at 21 doors under management and 3 are personal units that we self manage.

It's not a personal sale between you and your son, but rather a sale from one LLC to another.

I haven't personally dealt with any crazy insurance premiums such as the ones people have been advertising in like Tampa, FL.

Choose a goal so ambitious it forces you to grow into the person who can achieve it.

People want reliability, honesty, being on time, and having a good personality more than just a few $$.