Yes, it must be the rent prices, but also there seem to be a lot of 1 or 2 people travelers needing a small place for a short time.

Since you plan to travel often, focusing on systems and building a reliable team: agent, lender, property manager, and contractor. 

Since we're In a college town, a majority of our travel demand revolves around the Texas A&M University and the university's events.

If this is your first venture, your presence at the property will be very important, there is a learning curve, factor in your travel time and other commitments.

Second question is, if we don't live in the city we will invest in, we understand we will have to be traveling often, but who could be a good person to check in on the construction so we don't have to go every week?

I've celebrated by buying a home and traveling haha, congratulations to you to! 

I recently put my STR up as a MTR and found that the best way to price it out was to put on my "traveler hat" and see what was available in the area.

It’s amazing to see how much the market has changed since then..and I remeber reading an article in Forbes that talked about how travelers often prefer unique stays with great locations.A friend of mine up in Lakewood had a client who tried an Airbnb in a condo overlooking Sloan’s Lake.

Travel and per diem will be included. 

We have been traveling a lot and have run across several approaches.