I've heard Jason Hartman say several times this adage and it rings true here  "live where it is best to live and invest where it is best to invest."

Pricelabs, Stessa, Ring Doorbell, Schlage Automated Lock...These are the most critical in my opinion, and the ones I use myself. 

Curious if anyone in this forum can help us consider whether these activities to count toward the qualification of real estate professional (1-3 is more clear, but not sure we can gain the 50% participation hours needed over the part time job right now): 1) Advertise bookings on all channels (VRBO, etc), maintain all listing details and rates including researching surrounding properties and using technology tools to stay competitive. 2) Updating blogs on our sites and others related to our property listing for demand generation.3) Personally manage our own bookings we secure (this one is more clear to us)4) This is the big question - we use Ring surveillance on the outside front and rear property.

Curious if anyone in this forum can help us consider whether these activities to count toward the qualification of real estate professional (1-3 is more clear, but not sure we can gain the 50% participation hours needed over the part time job right now): 1) Advertise bookings on all channels (VRBO, etc), maintain all listing details and rates including researching surrounding properties and using technology tools to stay competitive. 2) Updating blogs on our sites and others related to our property listing for demand generation.3) Personally manage our own bookings we secure (this one is more clear to us)4) This is the big question - we use Ring surveillance on the outside front and rear property.

It costs to be the boss and if I could jump from 0 owned to 100 owned but it meant my phone was gonna ring 15x a day, then that's just part of what it costs.

These are very common here in Atlanta, but not sure if the same rings true down there.

Once a tenant has an owners phone number, you can't un-ring that bell. 

Heck- my property management company doesn't advertise and we turn potential contracts with property owners away all of the time, but our phone rings constantly with property owners who have terrible PMs and are looking for anyone who can do better and operate with some modicum of ethics- and a few who are annoyed at their PM because the DO have ethics and want someone to be their slum lord by proxy. 

You can easily hit 1%+ in the Ring Cities of Metro Detroit, which will be Class B and C properties.In the City of Detroit you can find 2%+ deals, but you MUST understand you'll be investing in Class C properties and you should avoid the Class D ones.

I have work number and personal number both ring to handset.