Often after touring & asking questions for 30 minutes, they would then describe their "perfect 12year old 75 pound bulldog" & ask for exception...complete waste of 30 minutes travel, gas, 30 minutes opening blinds/turning on lights & reverse at end, plus tour time.

I used the research and such to feel like I had some control (hah) while working an extremely stressful job and to destress at end of the night.

At end of day, it is probably just different expectation people have when they live in a crowded city like SF.

Single-family is doable but harder, North Dallas markets you will pretty much not get a cash-flowing property unless you BRRRR it but like others have said you also won't be pulling all your cash out of the deal, so you could be looking at ending up at 10-20% cash in, the remodel effort and time and then just decent cashflow but at least then you are in an area primed to appreciate significantly more over the next decade. 

If you move your buddy to the "normal tenant" bucket then there will be a tendency for them to feel taken advantage of and feel like that's "no way to treat your best bud." 

I have found in larger cities, AirBNB has a bigger play, but if you are looking at larger properties like lakefront homes, beach, mountain cabins etc, you will find VRBO has a tendency to bring more traffic.John and I both have lake houses and we both get more business from VRBO than AirBNB so don't discount using multiple platforms.Look at it this way, would it make sense as a real estate broker to limit yourself to only homes 3 bedrooms or more.

Not yet, court date is at end of month for final summary judgement.

Unfortunately  I have a tendency to compare all rental markets to CA, which is perhaps is unsound. 

Some did really well while others got on the gravy train at end of the market cycle. 

I hope to realize the benefits of each of your experience, so I hope to get more than just "use what everyone else uses" because, obviously I wouldn't have needed to post this.BP seems great for discussionsale about techniques used to structure win-win deals but too often leave out the details necessary to be able to put them in place.I also know many of you have a tendency to get off track trying to prove who is more right, moral, legal etc.