As for soft costs, you’re looking at a fair amount for a condo conversion-there are legal docs to have drawn up, reviews, surveys, recordings, setting up the HOA, reserve studies etc.

All the major PMS platforms have hundreds of reviews on there and you can get a great sense of what will and won't work for you without having to sit through 5 or 10 sales demos.I discovered both OwnerRez (for our STR) and ThinkReservations (for our hotel) on Capterra.

Study the market.

Unlike some buyers, I ALWAYS go look at the properties before the sale and discovered that the vacant lot had an active railroad track on it and therefore was unbuildable, and would remain unbuildable until the railroad removed their track. 

Study the market.

Hi @Nicholas L. and @Chris Seveney a few weeks after my post, they did a part 2 for the survey and 2 days ago, the Zoning Dept. emailed out an update for the proposed policies.Here's their message:"We want to keep you informed and share a preview of the proposed Short-Term Residential Rental Ordinance regulations and express our gratitude for your invaluable feedback and participation in Phase I and Phase II of the Alexandria Short-Term Residential Rental Study.

I noticed that the appraisal fee is higher than a typical 1 to 4 unit residential property, and they quoted and Environmental Study fee, which I have never heard of on a 1 to 4 unit residential property.

I looked into the maintenance option years back to discover a trend of:  apx. 8% monthly fee which only included rent collection (everything else from maintenance to turnovers etc, extra, and poor reputation on repairs.)

Lost time-  you don’t find out till Geometra study.4.  

I have been studying for my real estate exam, and am excited to pass it in February.