There is widespread panic among first-time investors about LLCs when it's unnecessary and not practicable.

I agree with Shaun it's a shady practice.

Licensable vacation rentals are obviously in high demand and offers can become quite competitive, I don't have any formal statistics but I'd say a quality active or eligible vacation rental sells at least twice as fast as a non STR property, the majority within days..My best advice to investors shopping for a hot or high demand asset class is:- Prepare & Practice: Get your ducks (GO UO!) 

If an incident occurred not caused by the tenant and the property is as practical matter totally unusable for residential purposes, the tenant may terminate the lease by giving notice to the landlord before repairs are completed.Failure to install, inspect or repair smoke alarmTexas law requires the landlord to install, inspect and repair smoke alarms prior to or at the beginning of the tenant’s lease.

Find Brandon's videos on YouTube for the "four square" method of analyzing homes and practice.

I'll take any advice I can get on contractors and and best practices on getting this project done.

Open to potentially purchasing in all 2-3 locations simultaneously, depending on options.

Would like at least 3 solid comps to work with.My question is, is it good practice to use comps that are contingent or pending or should I stick solely with comps that have SOLD? 

Are you licensed by the state in the states you practice in?

We also train you on accounting and setup your account with all the best practices for a large property management business so you won't have issues in the future when growing your portfolio.Hope this info helps, keep the questions coming!