Cash is always going to be king, but the delta is definitely more pronounced in higher interest rate environments.

If we the landlord would want to break the contract before the end of the multi-year term, we have to pay him a pro-rated fee to reimburse his investment

A HELOC offers flexibility and interest-only payments but can be risky with rate fluctuations.

By the time I was ready to jump back in and buy again rates had shot up as had prices.

Also, at this time I had seen properties selling for 10 – 20% over ask regularly.Interest Rate 30 year conventional 7%Homeowners Insurance = $1,000 annuallyRents = $1,800 per monthWhen I looked at those assumptions, I would need to put down $80,000 on this house to get it to hit my cashflow goal of $500 minimum per month which equates to 35% down.Total mortgage + escrow = $1,267.13 per month with rents at $1,800 my monthly cashflow is $532.87.From my experience, after taking out vacancy and maintenance costs you are left with around 73% of that total cashflow number once the rental is established.People have asked why a $500 per month cashflow goal.

One thing you will want to explore is the tax rate in the specific counties you are looking in.

You get a HELOC or a PLOC with a reasonable rate.

An STR is an income producing investment.I've never gone wrong with 3 things: 1) quality, 2) quality and 3) quality......Get an above average tub with great ratings/reviews and use a service to keep it going.

Interest rates were what, near 3%, 5 years ago.

As a first time and out of state investor, my top priorities for this first investment were (1) a property that would be quick to rent (as I didn’t have other properties to offset extended vacancy rates), and (2) a very strong local PM team that RTR had extensive success with.