I did a "blind" assessment where I paid/reimbursed a close family friend to go in as a guest because there were a lot of details I wasn't privy to- and wanted to understand (the whole experience and process from the guest perspective from the initial inquiry, emails, etc.).They shared the email communications (some of which was glitchy or not quite as good as what I'd expect, or told me of delays in receiving responses).

It is quite rural and it is much easier to get a permit for these sorts of things if you even need one.

There is an abnormally low amount of new construction occurring on the coast in comparison to the demand and the existing inventory can be quite dated, especially for those coming from areas like California.

As soon as one violation is discovered, send a Notice To Quit advising them to stop/cure within your state's time mandate (mine is 3 days) or vacate the property.  

Quote from @Fernando Martin-Gullans: Hey y’all, I’m a retail investor with 2 SFH rentals worth a combined ~$650k looking to utilize some of my stored equity to buy more out-of-state properties, but I’m not quite sure how best to proceed given that my interest rates are incredibly low (leaning me away from refinancing) and neither property is owner-occupied (which I believe prevents me from using a HELOC).

So a room used for laundry that is 100 sq ft (quite common) costs the owner about $72,000 over the course of a decade (in today's dollars). 

But,  It is quite a hike from Gainesville ... just FYI!  

Hi Trevor,I work at a local property management company based in Kissimmee and we are seeing quite a bit of STR convert to LTR because of the lack of reservations they had this past year.

Now that Kaaren has mentioned a self-directed HSA I think I'll definitely look at that in the future, there's not quite enough saved up in there yet to make sense to invest in truly alternative assets but at some point maybe!

Not sure if I'm allowed to post external links here, but it's in my BiggerPockets profile page.