Agree, it has to be STR compliant.

You'll never see a dime of it, but it meets your legal obligation.3.

Understand it.

I wouldn't do it on a cash-out basis, I'd keep em tied to it.

If so, you open yourself up to a larger pool of candidates.

If you need financial help, ask under the "Finance, Tax, and Legal" forum.

Try to put a bigger down payment in than you might need to give yourself some breathing room.2.

But if you do it right, yes, getting to a net revenue place to afford a GM is achievable in less volume of locations. 

Not sure how many PMCs you've had bad experiences with, but we'll take exception to:"Then do a thorough research on tenant applicants (note: leaving this to a PM may be hazardous to your financial health)".BP seems to have more threads about screening mistakes by DIY landlords as opposed to PMCs.Now, if you'd have mentioned Maintenance, you'd get no argument from me:) Even the PMC industry acknowledges maintenance as one of the biggest challenges.Rereading my post, I kinda see how I sounded negative toward PMs.  

I wouldn't have any interest in buying something like this to hold since it would be so far negative cash flow wise on a monthly basis.