This could easily cost you $10’s of thousands if you plan to stay in the home 5+ years when you return. 

Can you provide guidance on how to get started and some effective strategies?

It was all really quick, and the time to complete everything happened a lot faster than I expected (which was a good thing).I was worried at first that I had to use all the partners that Rent to Retirement had, but it was really easy for me to shop around for different lenders with different terms and rates, insurance providers, and property management company.

Provides a lot of content on what to consider when buying an STR.

Maybe it’s just gut feel, but for some reason It FEELS like these two scenarios will provide excellent opportunities moving forward, while fishing for notes to purchase at significant discounts to current principal enough to yield sufficient returns doesn’t seem as promising.  

Anyone who can provide useful advice would be appreciated.

Also, I have coached a few agents who wanted to get more heavily into investing and I am happy to share what we found worked easily for them. 

Last piece of advice is to surround yourself with quality service providers (real estate brokers, lenders, accountants, attorneys, PM's, Contractors, Insurance Brokers)., They will be instrumental to your business. 

We do them, but like you we often get push-back from the capital-provider funds.

I also provide small shampoo's and conditioners that I get in bulk from Amazon.It is hard to beat either for these kinds of supplies, even if you get a wholesaler to sell to you.