Every system you try will have flaws, or you may salivate over a feature that appears in other software.Some familiar names are mentioned frequently: Stessa, Apartments.com, RentRedi, TenantCloud, Innago, RentManager, Avail, Rentec Direct, Doorloop, etc.I recommend conducting thorough research on each app online to understand their offerings, pricing, etc.

Lied to the wife about visitors and got her to spend a weekend removing all the kitchen cabinets, sanded and resealed all of them (probably my best trick since we married).

A lifestyle that they can travel frequently and for longer.

I seek zoning variances frequently in Philadelphia, but its a lengthy process and don't personally find it a worthwhile pursuit for legalizing a second unit in a building.

The trick will be to find one that has enough rental income to offset the taxes so you can make some money.

Trick that I am learning:  work on overcoming your fears, pull leads, get on the phone, talk to sellers, local brokers, other investors, other RE partners, etc. 

Any success stories or could you please share with me some tips and tricks?

If you are good at self managing and know how to play the Airbnb/VRBO game with all the picture tricks, word gimmicks, amenities stuff and you are actively on their platforms, it seems to still be a viable market for the good investors. 

I don't invest in multi-family properties myself but one of the Bigger Pockets frequent contributors on these threads is Brian Burke, who quite literally wrote the book on this, I am buying a copy myself, but please read, i think an ebook available too, I do passive investing only in multi-tenant triple net retail but have spent hundreds of hours doing my own due diligence.

We hear about off market stuff fairly frequently.