Aren't there potential investors in their area; people who can easily eyeball the situation and check things out much more readily? 

Zachary, if I understand the requirements correctly(and it’s totally possible that I don’t) I believe I should meet the requirements of REPS easily with my activity in the home building company.

The WY LLC holds the state LLC (the state the STR in located) so yes, the owner can't be easily traced.  

Unfortunately we turn down many investors that come to us for various reasons.One of the big reasons is that if someone doesn't know what they want, I'm not the one to tell them what they should want.If I used such conversion tactics (Which I could easily do), would smell disaster long term IMO just like it did for many other overnight turnkey scammers promising 15%+ cap rates.It's not all about money/profit for us and it's also not all about baby-sitting incompetence either.We have enough "free" online marketing content where a half sophisticated investor can easily come to a conclusion about all of our offerings.Many try to side step the obvious and want more for themselves.Building a relationship in business but in life also shouldn't be about "take, take, take" or "me, me, me".It should be "give and receive"I bet that many folks can provide or offer some value in return from experience they gained from a W2 or in another way.Guess how many have offered something of value over my last 12 years of investing?

@Matt Meier, it really depends on your credit score and down payment amount.

. #1 - Charleston, SC area - Worth: ~800k / Balance on mortgage: $230k / Excellent rental history 5y+ @ $3,300/month / Divorce buyout #2 - Syracuse NY area - Worth: ~600k / Balance on mortgage: $185k / No rental history (just inherited with brother) but in a desirable area so local realtors say it will rent easily in the $2,000-$2,500 range / Brother is partner#3 - Kansas City, MO - Worth: ~200k / Balance on mortgage: $100k / Excellent rental history 4y+ @ $1,200/month / Divorce buyout First choice is to pay off partners in a clean lump sum now (one wants to buy ASAP in another market, the other wants to build ASAP), but I'm open to brainstorming for options.I live in Portland OR and rent my primary address. 

You can easily repaint yourself for less than a couple of hundred bucks.

If you don't already own a property, I recommend doing what's called a househack, it's easily the best first time investment you can make because you'll qualify for first time home buyer financing.

The old fashioned is LandlordLocks which gives you master keys, vendor keys and easily changeable tenant keys. 

For me a quick guide,  is I look at school rankings, easily found on Zillow if you type in a home address and what's surrounding the area as far as types of businesses.