If illegal immigrants averaged four people per home, they are still occupying an estimated 2.75 million homes.

You can either buy in a linear market, where you can purchase an older home for $150K, get excellent cash flow and see an average of 3% appreciation.

It's the in town STR properties that aren't particularly convenient to any of the major attractions that have struggled the most since this market became crowded.3) The difference between good and average or bad STR operators is huge. 

The average age of the number 1 single family home owner is greater than 2010 and less than 15 years old and they are now building homes new construction and owning them. the exact opposite of your strategy. older homes are the cheaper ones and unless you have experience I'd build in columbus close to downtown. same reason Toledo and Cleveland don't move the needle and there aren't 100 institutions in those markets. columbus is barely on the radar. 

The deals have to be more than average lucrative.

Per this NY Times article, the average American knows around 600 people.https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/science/the-average-american-knows-how-many-people.html#:~:text=The%20average%20American%20knows%20about,do%20you%20know%20named%20Kevin%3FPer the US Census Bureau, the average American moves 11.7 time in their life, which based upon an approximate lifespan of 84 years, works out to be about every 7 years.https://www.census.gov/topics/population/migration/guidance/calculating-migration-expectancy.html#:~:text=Using%202007%20ACS%20data%2C%20it,one%20move%20per%20single%20yearSo, if the average American knows 600 people and they each move about every 7 years, that means that the average American knows around 85 people that move in any given year.How many of those moves do you want to be involved in?

Over last 4 yrs, Orlando has seen about 10% per year average rent increases, even counting the near 5% decline in 2024.  

Real estate investing is forgiving; the average person can still make money even with some big mistakes.

That's why the average credit card rate is in the 20s.

Since the beginning of Q2 2014, the metro as a whole has recorded an annual average increase of 4.5%.