As has been mentioned, guests will find you on VRBO.  

I know I've mentioned NY & NJ a lot, but I'm willing to look at any geography in the US.

To go a bit further into what Dmitriy mentioned, since your IRA earns the income the tax treatment is specific to your IRA.

As you mentioned, networking seems to be key in this business.

My experience I am mentioning?

He had a lot of speakers over the 2 days, most mentionable are Pace Morby, Ed Mylett, and Tai Lopez (seems to be mixed reviews in Tai).

Both Charlotte and Raleigh are very strong growth markets, for all of the reasons that you mentioned.

When you specifically mentioned STR experience and the possibility of something with some added "personal value" bells started going off. 

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processesWe recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

Plus, as you mentioned, you could always tap into the equity later on to continue expanding.At the end of the day, it’s about what fits best with your goals.