It has gotten harder with the new lending seasoning period of 12 months but it is still doable.

Real estate appreciates over periods of time so it's a snowball effect.

Good turnkey providers should be able to minimize vacancy periods and reduce turnover costs.

@Michael Snider-Held we hear stories like this all the time in the LTR market about the national companies.These companies are setup to make money, period, with little oversight from management.So, owners need to make sure they read management contracts and UNDERSTAND what is covered and not covered. 

You could read 100 books and still not know enough because certain things must be learned through trial and error.

I was raised to be a "giver", but that has caused me to allow others to use me periodically.

But at that price point , that will be fairly minor.Once you hold the hard money loans for the seasoning period the portfolio lender requires, just roll over into that.

But over a long enough investing period the numbers should more or less balance themselves out and become fairly reliable.As Bruce pointed out, the alternative is to buy and remodel a piece of crap house. 

The lady that bought them down was trying to buy an Island in Clear Lake CA that I had worked on with another developer in the late 70s and it could not be built on at all period.. she had this big dream would never have happened but Remington stole her 10k and she went on the war path..

A lot of the STR management companies have contracts with companies to house their employees when they travel for extended periods of time.