Yes, it looks cool on Instagram and sells a lot of memberships but you get in the group and find many reasons to focus on more traditional strategies right away. 

I just have no idea how the contracts work, financing options outside traditional, etc. would love some help.

If traditional banks aren't providing favorable terms, consider alternative lenders like HML or PML.  

All my properties are traditionally financed with 20-30% down on 15-25 year AMs that balloon between 5-10 years.

Typically they are not eligible for traditional financing which implies other funding sources (HML, private Monet, self funded, etc).  

I do not recall any other fees or charges outside of traditional closing costs and they were easy to work with and communicated very well. 

It felt like a no-brainer for the value of the land, but being able to utilize a traditional mortgage because there was a clean yet simple 3 bed 2 bath house on the lot made the deal even sweeter!

Why not just get your license and sell real estate the traditional way?

If you’re close to $150,000 in AGI, a few ways you can bring that down AGI is by maxing out a 401k traditional ($23k for 2024 tax year), maxing out your HSA ($4,150 for 2024 tax year), and if you have any capital losses from stocks (up to $3k per year), I would encourage you to have great bookkeeping to ensure you’re capturing all of your deductions appropriately on your rental property.

STRs are difficult for a traditional LTR PMC to properly manage!