The issue is that I see that every other Airbnb in the area has their first photo as their living area. 

At the same time I have my current home as an asset to rent out if my HOA permits it.

I expect you will need a permit and not be issued one. 

So, they just stayed vacant.Income reliability is another major issue.

Are soft costs like permit and architectural fees drawable and when are they released?

NYC DOB considers a shelter a 'community facility with sleeping quarters' and may require a special permit for this use.Thanks Abel, You provided me with the right search terms to dig deeper. 

But they had issued insurance on day I applied.

Part of my issue was not having a reasonably priced handyman ahead of time and eventually overpaying to just get it done and also inexperience as a manager.With that said, you essentially have two options: very cheap properties in less good areas (you're looking at 100k or less--which you might have trouble getting a good lender for)  or trying to do some sort of house hack (e.g. live in flip, live in rent by the room, multifamily) where you budget will be closer to 200k-300k.Personally, I would not look at real estate until you are maxing out your 401k and IRA, but lots of folks have done significantly better with real estate than stocks and would think I'm crazy for suggesting this.

One metric we do use when we're able to pull the data are permits pulled & what type of permits pulled in an area.

I don't like AI descriptions (sorry @Andrew Steffens).They look and sound completely like it was written by a bot, which it was.I like to write my own copy for listings and I respond directly to all guests, inquiries and issues.