I’ve read about strategies like house hacking but am not too enthusiastic about what it would take (also not very feasible given the current cash I have), also the ‘BRRR’ method, though I wonder if it might be too ambitious for my first property.

I'm using the ENEMY method, AirDNA, Mashvisor, Revedy, and Pricelabs for comps and analysis.I was able to select the market and community that is marketed as vacation rental homes and most of the houses are set up as STR.

As your real estate empire grows, consolidating loans into one could offer better terms and streamline management.Overall, your method of buying, living, and then converting properties into rentals is a strong, scalable strategy for building wealth. 

So I made a compromise with myself, instead of putting that $100 directly to my principle, I'm opening a brokerage account that will have $100 deposited into it automatically every month and invested in index funds using dollar cost averaging method.

Market Research: What methods do you use to analyze and understand your target market?

Google and use the enemy method.

There's no seller resistance 9 times out of 10 and I get these properties 30-40 cents on the dollar.If your wholesaling this is def a method you need to implement in your business.

If you're going for non full documentation loans then there are other methods to qualify as well (rental income/ bank deposits/profit and loss/no income/etc) but these loans have higher rates and costs typically.

Anything can happen: the market can shift, we can go into another extended lockout period, the property can be destroyed by a natural disaster or by vandalism, the list of contingencies is endless.

BP was bought by a PE company several years ago, and there will naturally be a bit more focus on revenue and profit growth.