I believe, aside from house hacking, a LTR as your first investment is a great option since it will teach you many different aspects but not deal with the headaches of a STR. 

Investors are usually willing to let lifestyle living take a back seat while they begin their investment journey so that in the not to distant future they can be living the life style they desire with less stress.  

Price, taxes, location and life style continue to be the big attractions.

Holy hell a squatting problem so bad they hire security teams to go in military style?

The reasons being, rent by room is technically a boarding home style of operation, think halfway house, elderly care facility, childrens home, etc. 

squatters are in for a rude awaking .I posted about what Las Vegas has allowed to happen to squatters  IE using private security to boot them out military style.

I learned a lot and would like to connect with people that want to start investing and seasoned investors that could teach me a lot moreRecently became a realtor in Southern California to continue my real estate journey.Nice to meet you all!

BP and investing in general is more a passion thing for me, I have been an investor almost twice as long as an agent and I volunteer a lot, I am on the board of the RPA (Rental Property Association - a non profit advocating for lanlords) and I do all the marketing for the RPA, teach free classes etc

I recommend starting with You Can't Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar.

Those developers pray long enough while building out the building that the tenant will open and they can sell it off before taking a bath on it.The small to medium franchisees eventually if the have trouble get bought out by a Private Equity group that runs them like sh*t and makes their money back and sucks any remaining profit dry before they close or ask landlord for rent reduction.That's what 20 years experience teaches you versus buyers just looking at a cap rate thinking something is a good deal.