Tenants can only pay rent if they maintain stable employment with comparable wages.

I would recommend Columbus Ohio, it's one of the hottest markets in the US and you can get much better bang for your buck compared to Oregon!

With that much equity, you should compare rates with a conventional loan (no PMI but potentially higher interest rate) to see if the difference in rate would make sense vs the G-fee.

This includes all structural drawings, exterior drawings, framing plan, mechanical plans, plumbing plans, electrical plans, gas line plans, roof layout plan.I tried to work with a couple of firms and the pricing for all these came all over the places.I also came across a company called flip16.com (September Development, LLC)  who said they can do all of the civil engineering and architectural drawings work at a fraction of the price compared to those civil engineering and architectural firms.

That was a substantial discount compared to my friends who were paying 2k+.

I’m thinking a small town could be a great place for me to start compared to big cities.

If you ever want to compare notes on nearby markets, I’m in Branson, which has been great for both STRs and LTRs.

Using a Whole Life Insurance (WLI) loan avoids banks but accrues interest, potentially reducing policy benefits—compare this with other financing options like HELOC or seller financing.

It was a true trade-off as the Logan area is more limited in STRs and new builds so ADRs are higher and likely to stay there compared to RRG where the market is headed towards being flooded and there's the potential of ADRs going down like in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area. 

We recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.