It would be our fourth go round on this process.  

Releigh and Durham is 2 of the 4 markets who have made it to my final round of research before i make my decision on which market to focus on.

Not AT ALL.I explained this MANY times before but I shall give you a shortcut You send 1000 mailers... first round... you get 30 responses.You send the same people an other set of mailers, you now get 21 responses (and a and a whole lot of pissed off people)You sent an other 1000 mailers, you get3 new responders.Total: 54 responses.Now... how about this:You send 1000 mailers... you get 30 responses.You send an other 1000 mailers to a completely new set of people.. 

I'm in Ohio and read that I should start near me with the first couple of properties, but with Ohio having more people traveling here during summer vs winter, I'm nervous there could be a dip with seasonality instead of having steady year round coverage. 

I'll be renting year round for the foreseeable future but the goal is to eventually have a vacation home that I at least broke even on.

Margaretville is close to two ski mountains so it’s truly a year round destination.

Using $400,000 as a round number and more than enough to buy a single family home in my local market (Tucson, AZ) let's run the numbersScenario one: Hold cashIn 5 years, that cash will be worth assuming inflation stays at 8% for the next two years, drops to 6% in year 3 and evens out at 4% for the last 2 yearsInflation is relentless and your principle will be whittled down to $290,000 for the sake of round numbers but you will have it - still liquid.

I’ve gone thru several rounds of searching and even looked forward for the next 3 months on calendars and can’t seem to find enough evidence that STR’s are truly profitable there.

Could make or break the deal , also if they are Beaver Falls Schools would have to know round a bout area, it would also affect rent price

any time I'm considering an area that isn't nearby, I plan a vacation to that area to scout out the area. fly or drive there and spend a day driving round the areas you're thinking about.