We acquired a townhome property from a wholesaler, executed a successful renovation and remodeling plan, and achieved a profitable sale just 116 days later.

Whether you want to buy a 2-4 unit place where you live in 1 unit and rent out the rest or do something like a live in flip (where you fix up a house over the course of 2-3 years, move out and sell it to capture a tax free profit), it will mitigate your risk because it is where you live. 

If you use credit cards, I recommend having a designated credit card that you solely use for the rental property as well.This will keep your transactions for the property very organized and easy to find for tax season assuming you don't already have bookkeeping set up.

Like are they trying to make a profit? 

I.e. flipping a $100k house may yield you 30%, but that is only 30k profit, versus flipping a $1mm house at 20% profit, where you make $200k.  

Plus it better ties investment performance throughout the organization from property porter up to CEO.To your point, there are some vertically integrated operators that charge above market fees for their internal operations.  

The objective is to build a profitable portfolio and when you begin chasing doors you ignore the fundamentals your underwriting should focus on and make bad investment decisions. 

If you want to offer liquor or wine, consider making it an optional package guests can purchase in advance—an excellent profit injection opportunity!

In Minneapolis are making it very hard to be profitable.

Quote from @Ryan Marble: I'm just starting in the STR market in the Orlando and Tampa areas and was wondering what all of you experienced vacation rental investors would say are the 3 most important tips or advice to running a successful/profitable vacation rental in these areas?