If you cant, sinking money into a rate buy down seems to be a fools gold IMO.

Laundry list of deferred maintenance, looked like total slumlord status:   I cancelled escrow today.  

You can not do that with many other assets like stocks or gold. they are what they are.

For us it varies by market but in our primary market 15% plus a small monthly fee to help cover software costs etc if it's a lower gross property.That's full service, host doesn't have to worry about anything and can forget the property even exists if they want to.We do have tiered services where it's 10% (w/ no or lower monthly fee) if the owner wants us to only do one side of it (either manage bookings but not guests/cleanings/maintenance, or vice versa).25-30% used to be more normal but that's legacy pricing now, for a couple of reasons.1) Of course margins are much thinner for owners now that revenue has generally come down across the board from the peak, while home prices and interest rates have risen alongside that.2) Probably even more important, a simple supply/demand equation, particular to the case of increased supply. 

Stay away from gurus and people who charge you for their “expertise” in the beginning  so much free info out there  Its exciting to see how investors grow in this journey, and I’m sure you’ll build valuable connections along the way- Bigger pockets is a gold mine. 

In order to qualify for real estate professional status, you need to spend more than half of your work-related hours dealing in real estate directly, or more than 750 hours during the tax year.

Your guests will hate it.

I am proud to have achieved Super host status on Airbnb for the past year and have received hundreds of positive reviews across various platforms and through word of mouth.I am now looking to acquire additional properties in the Houston area to expand my rental portfolio.

The Investment I’m looking at is a  3 bed 1 bath and has a really nice already running Airbnb 1bed/1bath guest suite that generates an average of $1500/Month.

It's whatever makes sense for your financial status and lifestyle.