My three steps to success are very similar:1. 

I recently purchased a three family with a 50% finished basement that currently is only used for laundry.

Welcome to the Bigger Pockets community! 

Good morning, I’m new to bigger pockets.

Try to find creative deals where you have less money out of pocket.

They show up and ask three questions and then get one negative response, go crazy, and tomorrow they are in a day trader forum.

Well....should you invest in a city where the people elected a woman with foreclosures, liens, judgements, garnishments, ethical violations from the state ethics board,  misused a city credit card, went three years arrears on her federal taxes all while yelling for other people to pay "  their fair share, " left skeletonized dead bodies hanging over Canal St for months on end covered only by a tarp until the wind blew it off to reveal to our horror her blatant disrespect for human dignity?

That's three hours out of that manager's day, plus gas. 

If you have a solid tenant lined up, like say Bigger Pockets HQ (yes, I put 2 and 2 together there, I'm sure you have too :), or some other business you  or someone you know personally runs, I think it's a no-brainer.

I always used your number three as my prime focus when I started doing short-term rentals twenty years ago, before Airbnb existed.