Well, in addition to a couple of other comments, that helps.

And  all have be renewed every couple years. 

I, actually, purchased a property from them in PA a couple of weeks ago and it has been quite difficult dealing with them. 

I will be down in Mexico a couple days before so if you would like the opportunity to meet, hit me up. 

Basics might be the same, but there are differences...for example some are cash (real cash), some wants checks/no cash, some want cashier's checks, some want it within a minute of the sale, some want it after lunch, some within a couple hours. 

A couple years ago, I went to see a tenant occupied house but the tenant wouldn't answer the door to allow me in.

You could get licensed: I would join a team, as this allows you to shorten your learning curve, but you will be about 6 months without income and it takes a couple years to get good. 85% of new agents give up in the first year, and almost as many in the second.

What I mean by that is they lure you in with the free trial,  however, the free trial doesn’t give you near enough time to set up a website squeeze page your profile couple of direct mail mailers and any other marketing tool there is on the Automator.  

A couple big-time development projects has recently gone underway (expansions of  hyper-wealthy member clubs)we're looking to expand into a couple new markets, but we are entirely open to other locations.So I guess my questions are...1-is there a hands-down, by-the-numbers, best location in the US to invest in 2025?

I did sell a couple of STR's that performed well during COVID but waned after and invested the equity in other properties better situated for long term success.