Honestly if you are doing STR I would suggest doing Austin itself rather than all the way out there in Kyle - maybe a couple of years ago when the prices were through the roof in Austin city itself this would be a good alternative but there is a blip right now where you can get a god entry point in Austin (downtown/east ideally) for STR

Sometimes a refi or HELOC can be an alternative if you want to hold onto the property.If I were in your shoes, I would start looking at a refi first and see if that would be the most beneficial choice. 

Alternatively, you can give them hundreds of loans a year, and they will not care if you come back or not. 

Selling to you could begin to feel like an appealing alternative to dealing with the hassle of re-renting the home.If they’re open to selling, you can share what you’d be willing to pay based on your research and pre-approval.

They need to be high traffic areas in "trendy" parts of the city, or the alternative is what this forum is discussing being near Cleveland Clinic where travel nurses can be a large part of your tenant base.

Other Strategies: Are there safer or more profitable alternatives I should consider? 

Have you looked into local credit unions or alternative financing programs?

An alternative city in Ohio could be Columbus as it's a growing city with a large university, so ideally, always people to rent to. 

I currently use Followupboss, prop stream, I alternate between calltools and mojo, I've also tried smarter contactIm looking for a CRM that incorporates all of this but Im not paying a crazy amount.  

I had an experience with a terrible tenant who reported me for a bogus claim but by making the claim it allowed me to gain access needed to get photos of the condition of the property, and then the tenant refused to allow maintenance people in which really helped prove my side of the situation.If possible, explore alternative dispute resolution options like offering the tenants a cash-for-keys agreement.