you say that you "were told to" get an STR for tax purposes, which seems odd, and that you only have 30-40K... and you might use HELOC money to help with the down payment, which will just put tremendous pressure on you to be profitable and support all of the debt.unless i am missing something i would back up and regroup before you buy a random STR in a random market and hope it supports all the debt you will have to have...

There has been downwards pressure on rates this year due to the economy. 

That's how you truly learn and understand neighborhoods and where demand and supply pressures fall in your favor.

You’re definitely not alone in feeling this way—success and the pressure to achieve it can bring a lot of anxiety, especially when you’re just starting out.

I talked to his rep on the phone over a year ago, very high pressure.

It also reduces the likelihood of price fluctuations based solely on seasonal trends, allowing for more predictable cash flow and quicker returns.Markets with minimal seasonality also provide greater flexibility for investors, who aren’t pressured to time transactions based on seasonal cycles.

It feels like a desperate attempt to pressure someone into paying, but I've been surprised before. 

If you check under your trim you'll prob find places where the flooring is not touching the wall this will cause the floor to shift in those spots add some type of filler to put pressure against the wall and floor to avoid the seams having room to shift.

Keeping your financial house in order at all times will take the pressure off of the money part.

My impression of these DST's are as follows:  They are the easy way out of making a 1031 exchange with out the pressure of a replacement property in 45 days.They provide steady returns with no hassles, but generally low like 5-6 percentThey offer diversification of asset types.The cons are the fees to get into them and they are syndications that you don't have control over.