The unfortunate situation that many of my clients have faced prior to coming to me is that their smaller property manager was bought out by a larger corporation, and consequently their services were diminished. 

Me being an agent doesn’t somehow diminish my opinion as an investor about the area.People are doing well from in and out of state with STRs in this specific market.

Ask either one to do the other's job, and your results diminish.

@Chris Mason, you make a good point that interest rates will diminish seller demand since they won't want to enter in the other side of the equation.

Even though you are new to the business, make sure that you are doing everything with your head straight on your shoulders because you don't want to be accountable for a property when you can't close on it and then everyone treats you poorly and you diminish your rep because of a hiccup and not knowing what you were doing.

The complexities of this asset class are not there to be diminished, otherwise they would serve no purpose.  

Their impact will diminish with time and they will eventually fall off but until then you can not remove no matter how many times you write the repository.

Breaking even would be a success for my first purchase.Two things to consider that may help you:1) The longer you wait to do anything, the less passion you will feel by the time it comes to execute (check out the "law of diminishing intent".)

Quality of the site has diminished significantly. 

The functional utility and overall livability is somewhat diminished due to condition, but the dwelling remainsuseable and functional as a residence.Note: Some significant repairs are needed to the improvements due to the lack of adequate maintenance.