As you mentioned often they own the land/house next door. 

There's a ton of posts on this site mentioning the use of LLC's.

What is the new property tax law that you mentioned? 

I also invest in the Indianapolis metro area and had similar problems to what you mentioned in Ohio.

Every system you try will have flaws, or you may salivate over a feature that appears in other software.Some familiar names are mentioned frequently: Stessa, Apartments.com, RentRedi, TenantCloud, Innago, RentManager, Avail, Rentec Direct, Doorloop, etc.I recommend conducting thorough research on each app online to understand their offerings, pricing, etc.

IMO, only worth it if you have access to enough capital to scale your efforts, though.Can't be compared.To do well in the lending game, in addition to controlling your risk and what others have mentioned, you need... 

One thing I would mention though - doing STR just to save taxes often leaves you operationally unstable or too detached from the management to be successful.

I mention to them that I would be interested in their house if they ever think of selling it.

My allocation I mentioned above is purely what I would do based on my current financial situation.  

One mistake could extend the tenant's stay for months without any income, not to mention the stress it could cause.