My wife has been begging me to look into STRs and I have stayed away mainly because I know and understand true long term rentals best.Our plan this year is to double our income and continue living on the previous budget so we can make a massive splash with acquisitions this year.

Quote from @John Malone: @Ian Tyndall there is no such thing as “STR REPS Status” to be clear.https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/530/topics/1056436-clearing-up-confusion-on-tax-treatment-of-short-term-rentals True.

If there is a true interest in the property, we find out what we need to know.

Is that true?

If the statements are true encourage as desired.  

True , sargassum is an issue in Punta Cana and it is being managed.

In some cases that may be true, but more often than not, what the lender meant was "No, that's not a thing *I* can do" -- and the fact is that there may be a lender that CAN do it.

Hmmm.We run a detailed evaluation of each scenario and find that most house flippers only estimate their final profit and don’t know all their true costs.

In fact I'd bet the opposite is true as the cheaper houses will have more issues come up in inspection and attract a class of buyer who is more likely to have issues come up with the mortgage. 

It is true there are quality assets in those **** cities, there's also **** assets in quality cities.