I understand its a growing concept which has legit upside.

There's wealth of resources and knowledge on the platform.

How do I check/confirm its legit and not something that the owner just paid for online? 

I recently discovered this platform and my wife and I are looking to purchase our first rental property?

Start using a platform like Turno or another system that your cleaner can upload photos with a date and time attached to the file, after each turnover.

I am still running the show for FlipperForce and will continue to be heavily involved in working on the product vision.By joining Fund That Flip which is a leading nationwide lender for real estate deals we will have more resources to invest in our software platform and improve our product and services for our customers. 

I have also worked with CBIZ.Tips:  Get maximum liability, and make sure the replacement cost is legit. 

Co-Star is an amazing platform for data, but it is costly.

Are they legit?

From most OOS investors I am speaking to this is where most of the attention is, so be prepared for competition - seems that this forum was revived from the dead but to answer the original question with a few practices you can manage the air-bnb yourself to get higher occupancy, I would recommend educating yourself on tricks for the platform those will make the biggest difference - definitely helps having someone take care of your air-bnb account and for completely hands off investing do that but just previewing/welcoming who comes in can be done remotely in a professional manner I have seen it done in multiple states.