It's akin to making a booking at a restaurant and writing a positive review before you even get to the restaurant, experience the ambience or taste the food.

However, I accumulate a good amount of passive activity losses from rental properties. 

Much of their food would spoil and they'd be hungry, and most people don't have a proper stock of food and what do you think people will do when they're really, really hungry?

Such short term rental  will follow these criteria(see numbered list below), in order to take advantage of (1) qualifying to fill out schedule E, thus avoiding the Self-Employment tax should there be any profits. and (2) being able to offset your W2 income should there be a paper loss. 

Profit/Loss Statement and Balance Sheet for the Property: At a minimum, we would want a profit/loss statement and a balance sheet for the most recent complete year as well as year-to-date for the property, but we would prefer to also get the last 2 years of tax return pages for the property.

There are appraisal fees, inspection fees and other fees involved on your end when you buy a property.When a seller has a need to sell quickly (job loss, job transfer, medical reason, marriage, divorce, probate) they sometimes will take speed and no hassle over list on the MLS.

I can offset stock capital gains with stock losses.

To locate the best short-term rental (STR) insurance for your Asheville property, consider must-have coverages such as dwelling, liability, loss of use, and additional living expenses.

Not only that, but in my case, where I am a builder-owner until my license is approved, its ridiculous dealing with 'hiring' anyone to 'help' in this state so I've resolved with my trustworthy neighbor to paint it together and all i owe him is some beer and food.

Appreciation is just the cherry on top.The last few years Toledo somewhat caught up with appreciation but I believe we are capped now.It's a slow moving market and always behind the rest of the country.There is just not enough demand/infrastructure growth like in other markets to support continued appreciation.Historical data shows the Toledo market appreciating at the pace of inflation which is nothing to brag about hehe.IMO, it's a cashflow play and you should consider building a larger portfolio because it will be safer.Owning 1-2 properties can be a "hit and a miss" and really not the providers or PM's fault.There is a high likelihood of turnover so it's important to build a larger portfolio.If you experience "drama" on 1 or 2 properties, the other 4-5 are performing and can subsidize any losses incurred on the few that temporarily aren't performing.Wishing you much success