I am personally very bullish on the Phoenix market.  

Choose a goal so ambitious it forces you to grow into the person who can achieve it.

Great for personal residence but not for scaling.  

Explore my personal favorites, Set For Life by Scott Trench or The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, for invaluable financial insights.3.

They offer a $10K repair fund to fix damages in addition to SD plus warranty for appliance repair etc.I have no say in whom they choose to move in, whether there are animals, limit on # of occupants etc. they reserve right to inspect property so i have no idea if they can tell me to remodel, paint etc.does this make sense i have a vacancy coming up in October (bad rental timing).

Build connections with local professionals, talk to them in person, and value there time over yours.

I'm never going to use your website because I already have personal relationships with people doing that work.

Me personally I look at my rental as a business everything is paid for by rental.

Our first accepted offer was a 320 unit deal that we contracted, put up non-refundable (yeah, I know) earnest money, and thought we had our financing and money in place to do the deal.  2 weeks before closing a major (several million) partner pulled out leaving us short of the funds needed to close. 

Just my personal opinion - get a mentor or a person who already has good experience running STR business, preferably in your area (but not 100% required).