My income doesn’t show itself as being very high, but I have a relatively large amount of cash to put down.

Highly recommend @Lien Vuong she commented below and has helped a lot of our clients start of expand their investment property portfolio. 

At the numbers you are talking about and where the market is heading you could pick up some very high quality NNN national credit tenant properties as commercial continues to recover. 

They wrote me Commercial policies with high limits....only $100 mo roughly, never had a problem.I would just ask the company that handles your current home's insurance....some will do STR insurance, some won't.

Anyone that is looking at your assets is always going to need to factor in property management, so you can show that as a real expense (and really make it as high or low as you want).I work in a vertically integrated real estate and development company, and I cannot imagine how things would run if we did not have an internal property management company that essentially works for the other companies but also stands on its own.

Whie DOS lender risk may or may not be high, being ininsured is... well, enjoy your 'asset protection'.

If you already have a high interest rate, consider a cash-out refinance with a fixed rate rather than a HELOC.A third option could be to sell.

Toss in a month or vacancy, a high repair bill, a remodel or what have you and they are making just as much as you are. 

About me, most of my assets are RE but in another market so I would be diversifying in that market.Potential for appreciation is very uncertain: prices have risen a lot locally lately and are as high as they have ever been, and it’s unlikely higher prices would be affordable by locals.

Lots and lots of research.Price points also help, block quality, etc.