The service fees end up being around 20.75% if you hire a "host" or property manager to make the investment as passive as a long term rental. 

Hey @Abigail King - I'm quite a bit further north here in Chicago, but my friend @Brad Stegall hosts a great meetup in Perioa - consider connecting with him and attending the event.Are you looking to buy & hold or fix & flip?

The website 51west.properties also scores low on scam advisor ("owner is using a service to hide their identity, high number of suspicious websites on the server, registrar has a high % of spammers and fraud sites, website is (very) young, website appears to be hosted by a company with a bad reputation", all according to https://www.scamadviser.com/check-website/51west.properties...)Trust your instincts. 

Unfortunately there's a lot of alarmist/scare tactics utilized to upsell these services that do nothing but generate revenues for those who are selling the service and often leave the clients with recurring expenditures i.e  annual maintenance costs.  

We have used Axis products before, and they have great support/installation services.

As an investor, and with others teaching and mentoring, a person in real estate should never leech off of a host.

We don't allow any "deal-making" in the forums, which includes advertising your services or properties, looking for partners, etc.

Either way, I get that this is a contrary viewpoint, so I didn't come here to debate, only to present the concept and to offer my services if it was appealing to post creator.

You can find plenty of markets where nobody builds and you won't get competition but you won't get bookings either because there's no demand.It has been proven that, with short term rentals, it's the really professional hosts that make the bulk of the money (think the 80 - 20) rule.

What service do you offer?