The key is to pick a lane—focus on improving as an investor, finding great deals, and letting a solid property manager handle the operations.

I also probably wasn't as educated as I should have made myself, so I'm sure there were decisions that could have been handled better.Part of the reason I wasn't willing to deal with the hassles was because I had 3 young kids. 

We upsell 3-to 4 simple packages that guests love; I have trained my cleaners to handle them (they make extra money), my VAs help schedule it with cleaners, and we still make a 50% profit margin on everything.

@Kris Lou Be careful with agents as 95%+ of them really only know how to handle owner-occupied transactions.We don't do biz in Indianapolis, so this is unbiased info we hope you find useful:Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

Ask your lender how they handle it.

Read those relevant parts and figure out how far in advance you must give eviction notice, how to handle evictions with no lease, etc.2.

If so, and this does happen during a guest stay, how would you handle the situation? 

Tenant handles all utilities and lawncare.

The systems you have in place to handle leads, follow-up and your sales processes are also huge factors.Another factor is what is your monthly marketing budget?

The least states:"Tenant shall pay a "late charge" not in excess of five (5%) percent of the amount in arrears for each month the arrears remain unpaid if any Rent is paid more than ten (10) days after the due date thereof, to cover the extra expense involved in handling delinquent payments.