The one issue you run into is dual agency if you use the sellers agent...it's problematic for you, but good for us...license law does not allow for advocacy for one party over another, so getting advice on pricing and insider information on the property is a no-go...but the agent gets to make both sides of the commission...So just be careful when you run into the dual agency issue...and ask the agent to waive part of their commission to give you an advantage on purchase price...

My other interests include: Music, Business, Food, Consumer Advocacy, Investing, Football, Baseball. - Mike

Landlord advocacy groups are working to stave this off.

I went to a presentation by a group that was ostensibly related to "affordable housing" advocacy in the East Bay about two weeks ago, with guest speakers from various firms.

Did his advocacy include losing money while waiting to capture the appreciation or getting to a point of positive cash flow?

City of Seattle puts on its own 'renting in seattle' trainings monthly - very worthwhile if considering being a landlord in city:  https://www.seattle.gov/rentinginseattle and https://www.seattle.gov/rentinginseattle/news-and-eventsFor a viewpoint from the other side,  but aside from the (unsurpisingly) tenant-advocacy centric point of view pretty factual when it comes to actually describing landlord tenant law is the tenants union website:  https://tenantsunion.org - this is where your tenants would likely go at some point or other if they are having a contract dispute with you so worth looking at.Other municipalities and counties have their own patchwork of landlord tenant rules on top of statewide RLTA - best thing to do is go to the city/county website typically cityname.gov and look for landlord/tenant ordinances.   

There aren't any rules limiting use of eviction history other than the rules around credit reporting limiting that information to 7 years back afaik and they don't limit use of credit score,   though our lefty leadership and all the rental advocacy/SJ groups have all indicated interest in such things.   

Hi Taylor,Here are some sites and blogs that might be useful:Short Term Rental Advocacy Center: They have a lot of current information on short term rental regulations.AVROA: The American Vacation Rental Owners' AssociationRentals United blog: Rentals United is a channel manager, but they have a great blog on managing your vacation rental.Cottage Bloggerrented. blog: Lots of resources for homeowners and property managers on how to best manage properties.

Actually it might not be a bad idea to find the STR advocacy group most local to the area or state(s) where you intent to operate.

Advocacy.