I totally understand the struggle, Venecia!

If not, understand the risk of taking equity to generate more equity based off your ROI.

It’s such a big leap of trust, and unfortunately, there are agents who don’t always live up to what you need in this process.An out-of-state investment can be daunting, and it’s so important to have someone in your corner who truly understands your financial goals and is committed to building a relationship beyond just getting to the closing table.

You are solely focused on the net income but have to understand the expense implications.  

From what I understand you use AirDNA for dynamic pricing?

Brandon Turner's Rental Property Investing book is an excellent primer to understanding the happy path for purchasing a property - however in this market it really comes down to having bulletproof assumptions on rents/taxes/R&M/etc. as with rates as high as they are/inventory as low as it is, there is less cushion in your returns if you analyze properties with bad assumptions.

I just don't understand their purpose and why they are repeatedly doing this to people. 

While cash flow may be harder to achieve here, these markets often shine in their ability to withstand market downturns and provide solid appreciation over time.The key in markets like this is understanding your goals.

Second, in terms of asset protection, LLCs are not invincible, but I think what many don’t understand is that they are not designed to completely shield your assets from liabilities, on the contrary they are designed to contain and isolate liabilities.

I would hesitate to say 1-2 years to rotate out but closer to 5 years, and ideally I'd try to get the downpayment higher to at least 10%.I understand your areas though-- they're expensive.