It's a reality that amplifies the importance of conservative underwriting.In the last few years, the market became so competitive that many investors resorted to aggressive underwriting to justify their deals.

Checkout some of the great Vrbo tools like market maker.You can see demand, occupancy of your competition for certain dates.The boost function can move you up in the search results for certain dates and it will also show you where you are in the search results for any dates you choose.I get most of my bookings from Vrbo and people always find me on there.

(But it wasn't apples to apples.)I looked at AirDNA's data recently and don't disagree with their broad picture but again, people here know that the details and other factors can tell a different story and bring success for some in the same area (comparables) and loss for others.I'm all about reducing risk and my read on climate data and global economies (& yes, politics) incline me toward continued investment in properties that have multiple channels of revenue, above a certain latitude, and more upscale.

Padslip has that model, it is a kind of the competition for people who do house hacking :PGood Luck in your search and investment. 

I am also not adept to design, and pay a designer especially in today's competitive market. 

I don’t know if that is something I want to start with all of the competition right now.

You should keep it to yourself though, if you get all the BP'ers buying in there, you will have more competition, fewer great deals for you :-)

What we are seeing is a massive increase in the number of properties for sale which has resulted in more competition between sellers and more of a balanced market than we've seen in a long time.If we continue to have a high number of properties for sale and a shortage of active and able buyer's then we should have some really solid buying opportunities even if the overall market doesn't drop. 

I saw some older articles that said small landlords are not subject to the Act, but I'm now reading the Act itself and I don't see any such global exemption for small landlords.  2. 

Once the current glut of new supply is absorbed, there is nothing in the pipeline, creating a 3-5 yr window of lower competition.