You can increase the rent gradually every 2-3 years too. 

I just acquired a rental with an existing tenant in one side of the duplex so after trying to offer her a new lease at current market rate and giving her gradual increases of $150/month instead of going straight to $1450 from $850 and she is balking and says she can’t afford it.

I think if the current tenants are good and want to stay then a gradual increase will be good for both parties.

Gradually your brain will start seeing yourself as an investor, but final action has to come from determination to take action.

Also thinking it may continue on a gradual slide for the next year...election year may go up for all the people that have been waiting to see?

STRs that are not the absolute peak performers are already having issues with vacancy, and AirBnB recently changed their platform so that only the absolute cream of the crop units (five star resort-level luxury units with thousands of perfect guest ratings) are getting promoted.In a nutshell, STRs are a lot more work, require a lot more expertise, and are a lot less reliable/secure than traditional long term rentals (all other things being equal).Plus, house hacking a long term rental will give you invaluable experience in how to analyze, acquire, and a manage a property that you can then apply to doing a STR in the future (if you decide you want to go that route).Start with the strategy that is the easiest, simplest, and most likely to succeed (house hacking), and then gradually build up to more advanced strategies (like STRs, BRRR's, etc.) as you gain experience.Good luck out there!

We get fall breakers, holiday visitors getting out of the snow, and spring training/spring breakers....but now is a great time to buy, prices have been gradually dropping for homes that need work. 

You can gradually keep increasing the rent every year to compensate the increase in HOA fees.

I personally don't think that we'll be seeing a quick or significant decrease in home prices in the Northern Virginia area, but perhaps more of a leveling off (as supply starts to increase and demand potentially begins to taper off a bit with rising interest rates) followed by more gradual/steady price increases into the future.

My angle would be to offer a few months of free rent, one year below market rent ($12/ ft) and then gradually step it up market rate ($16/ ft).