I have heard from others, including @Karen Chenaille that Vermont is very STR friendly. 

I would start backwards from your purchase price and financing to narrow it down, go with a landlord friendly state and try to leverage anyone you know (family member out of state, friend doing BRRRRs out of state, etc) - that should narrow done your market quite a bit.

We're mourning the loss of friends and neighbors, some of which haven't been found yet, not to mention favorite places, small businesses, animals, you name it.

I also suspect the seller's friend rented the other unit because the rent is cheap and the landlord is a pushover.I would look at this entire situation carefully.

Two of my close friends just purchased apartments in downtown Punta Cana (which are under construction) and we just built in another beach town called Samana. 

I am helping a friend with a property his mother has some investment in.

Invasion of privacy, unclean and rude house members, maybe if they do drugs or smoke or are party animals, unwanted friends of theirs visiting at odd hours, clashes of personality

The company owes me (and a friend) over six figures each.

After that ordeal, I swore I’d never use them again.I've been using Stessa, and while it’s great for generating reports and tracking income and expenses in a user-friendly way, it’s far from perfect.

That said, it sounds like the software they are using may not be as STR friendly for them to manage your place while also giving you, the owner, the visibility you're looking for.