I would like to speak with local investors, real estate agents, property managers, lenders, etc. from the area.

I'm a broker and property manager here in Sacramento, I manage about 100 investment properties, multifamily LTR and STR. 

The same is true with property management.

My operations manager just notified me that we did in fact fund 3 out of the 4 condominium deals you brought us.

You can always reach out to my property manager and talk with them about the comparisons.

Hello everyone, I am analyzing the Indio, CA market as a short term rental investment and we'd love to speak to someone who is self managing their own vacation rental.  

With enough knowledge you can make a educated decision on which approach you take.My experience:I personally don't sign up for any program who take you aside during events and try to sell packages that is just blatant sales strategy.Once you sign up there is every attempt to make you sign for their programs for bookkeeping, registered agent, LLC or corp setup fee which have ridiculous even with platinum membership.Basic standard structure they suggest to take advantage of multiple deductions can be easily achieved by proper education or work with a good firm like https://wcginc.com  who is local to you.A umbrella C-crop to manage all other LLC properties and take advantage of many tax deductions that are not available with a llc, its also used to take losses up to 100K as startup expenses and dissolve the entity after few years.Few LLC entities for investing in Real Estate, etc preferably in Wyoming or Nevada ( you can find many companies online who can do this for $150 compared to anderson $1500-$3000) , they will claim they have a secret Operating agreement which is bogus.They certainly try to take advantage of tax loopholes and claim to be smart people, my view they are just taking advantage of numbers as per their own statements.

It is surprisingly easy to manage out of state and if you want more tips on how, check out Bigger Pockets book "30 Day Stay" on Mid Term Rentals. 

We manage a property that was having drain field issues for awhile, got estimates and had the owner approve one of the vendors.

Your plan to house hack a multifamily property in Indianapolis is a great strategy to start building equity and learning the ropes with manageable risk.