@Bob Galivan  - great points. a) POS can eat your estimated buy in for sure unless you are well cash capitalized on the buy side b) spot on c) very good guidance, especially for 1st timers or out of state players d) AND EVEN WITH inspections....you easily add a $10-25K repair tab turkey bomb expense to your portfolio.  

The bigger players who have entire crews can manage this better than I can as a one-off customer of the contractors. 

I don';t have time for meetings and networking... and I bet most big players don't either.See people that eagerly go to these networking events, usually are people that need help, that are not succesful, that even though will NEVER admit it... but they see their own system is not giving them the results they are looking for ... hence network events... and most network events are like "Alcoholic annonimous" meetings where it is a huge  orgy of bragging right."

Here is where the real players separate from the wanna bees that never actually do a deal.  

"You can also sell this deal to another player."

I am trying to put together my first deal and want to bring in key players.

At the least, you can JV or act as a bird dog for larger players if you do find a deal.

3 Key players you need to get on your team and talk to at least once a week 1.

Prove that you're in this game as a long time player and bring everything upfront to the table to include proof of funds to close and preapproval letter. 

Worth a shot for an alternative to the big STR listing players!