I own a few properties in Birmingham and my parents still live in the Oak Mountain area, so it's cool to see that area growing into the STR arena! 

@Scott Trench I found JP's blog and it's pretty cool and what she did is rather impressive, but I think her achieving a top 1% income is more impressive than her retiring so early. 

@Tonya Sanders Welcome and hope you are staying cool!

Thanks @Joseph M.Haha it actually was fairly successful all things considered, and my wife and I got to go to lot's of cool venues and drink champagne so it was definitely a good experience.

The cool part is as you move forward these same people that are on this thread now will very likely jump in and answer specific questions that you have.

My current thinking is I'll do a ton of homework now while I wait for the market to cool down.

There are so many cool and exciting things going on.

At the 5 year mark I’ll owe roughly $73k and will have paid about $20k in interest, plus $14k of the principal.I have the ability to pay the loan off at any time with no penalties, which I intend to do.The loan documents, or more specifically, my promissory note (loan terms I negotiated) and mortgage (security device to give my lender first lien on the property.

This discussion is off the topic of REI, but DGI is pretty cool, actually, and I find it makes a good bit of sense to landlords since the dividends are akin to rental cash flow, and there are several other parallels as well ... my heart is still with my local rentals, but it is a decent place to diversify IMO and park extra money assuming you are ok with potentially parking it longer term in case a bear market hits.

If you can find a motivated seller for whatever reason you can throw some other strategies related to seller financing or even lease option (or sandwich lease option) which I think is a really cool way to get a property without much money but can be a win for all parties involved.