I was looking towards Florida or Arizona as I hear those are some markets with potential but possibly highly saturated.

Competition and getting a foot in the door into different markets can vary depending on saturation of investors, competition from primary residence home owners and even REIT's. 

You could also look into airbnb arbitrage, personally I think it is a bit saturated right now but it is probably easier to get into than purchasing a house in your situation. 

I know some have given into the fact that the areas are saturated and too competitive to have a chance at the numbers we are trying to hit, or they just don't have the experience working with OOS buyers who are not paying retail prices.I know a few of the agents refused to write low offers because they were worried about insulting the seller/listing agent and damaging their reputation.

I'm wondering if STR is at a point where it's difficult to enter into a market due to the saturation of STRs/competition. 

Some markets are saturated or will be soon.

AirBnB is a bit saturated now in many markets and you need a very unique property to maintain 2022 levels of income

It certainly has a better buy-in than many other more saturated markets but can be particularly tricky when not knowing the area.

I am at that point of knowledge saturation and ZERO steps toward action other than looking at all the listings.

The 2023 quota was hit really quickly and 2024 is also done from things I have read.Scottsdale is pretty saturated now, but here are the rules around STRs - https://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/c...