It is the taxpayer (me) who shoulders the burden of establishing that bank deposits “should be excluded from income or allowed as deductions.However, even when I was depositing the rents directly into my own bank account, the fact that I possessed the rents did not conclusively create a tax liability for me.

., but sometimes it’s hard to get past the imaginary little person on my shoulder saying, “Are you really going through all this and buying out-of-state rental properties for a measly $125/$200 per month?”

A lot of us were starting blind pre-BP with no way to reach out for feedback or a shoulder and family telling us we were crazy. 

A good PM isn't cheap however I want to point out that they may be worthwhile for the simple fact (among many other things) that most reputable PM companies will employ all the hotel staff which takes away a lot of employer risk (employee lawsuits) off the owner's shoulders.  

then shrug your shoulders  LOL

They are often quite simple, have few parts, and can be easy to troubleshoot and even do some routine maintenance and minor repairs yourself.I've had to deal with a couple furnace issues in the last year, in both cases a bad logic board was the cause, and we only discovered this after having multiple HVAC companies come out and assess the problem, struggle to find the root cause, often replace other parts unnecessarily, and ultimately shrug their shoulders and recommend a full replacement at $5k+.In one case, I went online, bought a logic board and installed it myself to fix a furnace that wasn't working consistently.

We are sitting in a good spot, but there are a lot of things I am looking over my shoulder. 

Looking over someone's shoulder will be helpful.

You could also benefit from attending local meetups as that's a way to brush shoulders with multiple investors at the same time. 

The shoulder season is always quiet, but you could likely get 30+ day rentals in the summer.