Awesome, a steady demand in the area however becoming fairly saturated with other investors converting units into STR's.

My current biggest hurdle is saturation in true vacation markets (especially drivable vacation markets!)

Choose a true vacation market where saturation is not a problem.

I don't know, it looks like a pretty saturated market in that price range. 

Real Estate margins will always trend toward decreasing margins as the herd mentality brings saturation to the old-school methods (FHA house-hack a MFR for example).  

so i'd say i actually see LESS flipping being done in these 2 dense metro areas. they're already saturated with practically instant turnover, that the fix-and-flip type of flip return is thus somewhat limited, making flipping in areas outside of the metro area more feasible.

I started 1.5 years ago and I thought it was the top of the market and over saturated at the time.

Are you in a saturated market? 

There have SOOO many new STR pop up in Gainesville over the last couple years and now it’s pretty saturated and several investors are selling off their properties or changing their strategies to long term tenants. 

It’s beyond over saturated, so marketing is your real challenge.