Once you start working with an investor friendly agent, they can bring you deal flow that matches your criteria.

If you have a competitive advantage that you can bring to your co-hosting/managing, then I would recommend looking for owners with properties that mesh well with your target resident.For example, if you are an active duty military servicemember with unique insight into what a servicemember is looking for, lean into that.

It's great that you bring a background in construction.

We want to get a few rentals up and running and then (if all works well) begin bringing other friends/investors in to invest with us.

Not sure if this appeals to youJoint Ventures: Partnering with a larger hospitality group or another investor might not only bring in funding but also expertise and industry connections. 40% of a deal is better than no deal.

If the city decides to enforce inspections later and your property isn’t compliant, you may need to make costly updates to bring it up to code.It ultimately comes down to your risk tolerance.

This is a good question.I found that meetups are kind of like you described not much really happens there and for sure REIAs and their monthly meeting kind of the same people talking about the same thing then bring in ( at least what i have seen with the PDX reia) folks that are presenting on things that worked decades ago.. and want to sell their stuff for a few grand.For me personally the best networking hands down was SF Bay Area events  San Jose Reiaand LA  FIBI events.folks in those markets are very real estate centric and generally more experienced and in San Jose so many tech folks that have done really really well.. maybe not in RE but have done great in TECH and have quite a bit of bandwidth for investments..

We're considering knocking down the carport and/or putting in another ADU, ideally a 2/1, to bring our comps to 6/3.Has anyone investigated or done this recently, and have advice on the subject?  

I own a small portfolio that brings enough income for me not to have a w-2 income.

All that means is you've got bring your best to all aspects of the property and the listing itself -- location, furnishings, photography, heck, even the listing headline all matter a lot.At the risk of pitching here, my wife's YouTube is filled with a ton of great MTR content on setting up a listing.