I am not sure what type of real estate investing you're considering, but it sounds like, with your family and busy job, you won't have a lot of time to be hands-on or personally involved. 

Our life is complicated and I work a complicated stressful job, but if we’re being honest, I also don’t have time for renters, but I somehow make it work and I personally think it pays off.Mtg: 1800Rent: 2900Owe: 200Rate: 4.5 I thinkSell Price: est. 450-460No other rentals except an in law suite on our current primaryFuture goals: would love to use this properly to buy other properties to get out of the corporate rat race. 

Personally, I like to target 30% equity retention in each deal.- Section 8 income isn't guaranteed.

I personally think this is the direction booking sites need to go.

And this means you're going to spend some money on that person.

Also interested in networking to learn more about my personal interest in STR's primarily in the Tampa, Bradenton, and Sarasota markets along with other southeast coastal and mountain markets. 

i'd pick a market close by, or that you have a personal connection to, or that you visit often.chasing cash flow by itself can lead to negative outcomes - for example, these investors bought in supposed "cash flow" markets:https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/1215726-break...https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/963/topics/1195280-expe...https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/1137397-balti...hope this helps.

I havent worked with him personally but have received a good referral for him.

I personally use Bnbcalc: https://bnbcalc.com/?

Quote from @Michael Challenger: I have no qualms with hard money lending, but I need to learn more about the process and structure to these for typical deals so that I am more comfortable and in a position to reduce my personal risk and risk to investors as much as possible.