My thought is that the people that ARE using it for lead gen/outreach, automation etc. will keep the methods to themselves until the advantage of early adoption is done and that business segment is saturated, then they will sell courses to everybody else..

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to post this. 

So, yes, you can absolutely have a great rental business as an out of state ( and even international ) investor, as long as you have a solid team that are your boots on the ground. 

I only pay for BP leads and all other business comes from my sphere/referrals. 

Their business still needs to grow up. 

I then did the same idea in my business that I had for 25 years.

What Brand and color paint would you guys suggest?

Keep personal and business finances separate to create less headache.You should also do the following to make your bookkeeping easier:- File all receipts in a dedicated Google Drive folder.

I have experience investing (own 2 STRs and an assisted living home+business).

You need the right solution for your day to day operations.Your need is to make the management side easy, so that you can analysis your accounting, business and management all with only one entry.