But you won't have the same office culture because they don't have many offices.If you want to work in a small town and learn from a person, but not necessarily have the latest CRM and tech, a mom and pop usually works a single town and crushes it, but won't have much training other than here is a lockbox.

I've found that around your price point (mine is similar), about the only things avail are condos and town homes in my price range.

They get the advice, but they can't be wrong, so they buy a property in an HOA that doesn't allow STR and in a town that has groundswells against it and requires permitting.

SC Coastal towns have gotten very strict with licensing, regulating, and permitting for STRs.

Tangentially, there are a fair amount of former STRs now being sold around town in part because of the regs and also saturation.  

Investment Info: Multi-family residential buy & hold investment located a 20-mile drive or 25-minute ferry ride from downtown Boston in the beach town of Hull, Massachusetts, also known as Nantasket Beach.Purchase price: $550,000 in 2016Cash invested: $137,500 from 1031 exchange (75% mortgage)A 14-unit property on a corner lot, and it includes an adjacent lot as well (10,000 sq ft total lot size, double the town median lot size), giving an exceptionally large patio, yard, parking areas front and back, and a storage shed.

The village was originally just worker housing for all of the servants and businesses that served the Biltmore, and over time became a trendy & fancy little town just outside the gates.

This is before accounting for things like repairs & maintenance, etc.So just be sure you fully think through the cost side of investing out of town / out of state.  

By fall of 2021, both the visiting scholars and the vacationers were back in town, a lot of furnished listings had disappeared and I am back to renting at my pre-pandemic rates. 

I saw the income potential in a college town and ability to add value.