My thought is that it's better to own fewer high quality properties than lots of cheaper ones. 

I don't know anyone else in the game that offers quality turn key properties in nice neighborhoods, helps you strategically plan for the future AND can offer in-house financing if you need! 

They seem to require high quality materials and  craftsmanship to maintain a level surface.

The only way you could get to 3 quality STRs with that $80,000 is if you use the BRRRR method and execute it absolutely perfectly. and get all of your capital back + some extra to cover furnishing on every deal.

Negatives would be maintenance issues, and need to update space as time goes on to bring in quality tenants and rent.

Once you determine if you need a license and are sure you are DF compliant, your other concern will be the quality of collateral and how much you are willing to lend against it.

Market the property effectively: High quality photos; video; competitive buyer agent compensation; marketing to agents via email, social media, broker Open houses; etc.You and your agent may already have this covered!

Not too low either, you don't want to go with someone who is just focused on price as this is a quality of a not-so-great accountant.

The reason they can give free skip trace data is because it's such dated and poor quality they are getting it at little to no cost.  

Passive real estate investing comes with its own challenges of course, most notably finding quality syndicators and the high minimum investment (typically $50-100K if you invest by yourself).