Make sure they are "investor friendly" and well connected in the neighborhood.

Hi Jon from Boyertown, PA-You and your fiancé are interested in buying your first short-term rental and wonder profitable areas to purchase with a budget up to $500,000.I would look at places along the west coast of Michigan, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and near Ann Arbor, MI.It is important to understand the local STR regulations in each community and partner with a property management company that can help your navigate that and manage it well for an excellent guest experience.Don't forget to look into bonus depreciation and doing a cost segregation study to increase the tax benefits of ownership and if you "materially participate" in the management of the property per IRS guidelines it can offset active W-2 income which most real estate cannot.To Your Success!

Also, how effective is their CRM—does it integrate well with other tools, and does it offer automation for follow-ups?

I'm curious as well. 

These are great programs to use and NY offers a few as well as a couple of Nationwide DPA's and grants.

Well you can probably get around $70k out of your $300k property on a HELOC.

There is lots of information on how to analyze publicly traded REITs as well.

We have well over 100 Five Star Google reviews.

Some have been on the market for weeks", that doesn't bode well for renting of any kind really.

Hi @Joseph Goode I didn't see any responses on this so I wanted to see if anyone did get back to you via PM as I am interested in this topic as well.