I've rehabbed, developed, bought and sold several 1/1's in Oregon and am under contract for one now..I'd say it depends a lot on your audience and area but smaller affordable and quality homes are in demand.

The difference is that the physical assets which make it harder for quality control.In average, it took me about a year to build a strong team, with a lot of hands-on involvement, but I spent a lot of time looking at the work.Currently, I am building a team for my portfolio in Dallas that I have with some investors, but I am here so I can look at the work closely.What I have seen is that is better to have one or two employees in a payroll and then all others as contractors.

Nobody has ever regreted buying a quality property.

The orange beach came to play bc of low taxes and basically same beach quality.

However at the end of the day I do think self-managing with systems and processes is a great way to keep more cash flow and ensure higher quality tenants.

Quality over quantity.

That being said, I am getting inspections of all major systems to ensure quality as this will be a hold for me (I would do it anyway, my name is on it).

Flowers, staging, high quality photos, video, drone photos, Matterport

Personally I'd think more about quality of life you are looking for and if that market fits into your overall investing goals.

Licensable vacation rentals are obviously in high demand and offers can become quite competitive, I don't have any formal statistics but I'd say a quality active or eligible vacation rental sells at least twice as fast as a non STR property, the majority within days..My best advice to investors shopping for a hot or high demand asset class is:- Prepare & Practice: Get your ducks (GO UO!)