Also 4th quarter of last year Packwood and county officially did discuss potentially regulating STR's by either limiting numbers or adding a tax to cover increases in local services that are needed. 

Single family homes are usually the best as they have fewer limitations.

All this to say they are getting serious about permitting so if you are planning to invest in San Antonio in the short term rental space, MAKE SURE to check that the property is eligible for a short term rental permit given the density limits above and have a Realtor experienced with the San Antonio permitting requirements and rules. 

There are a lot of ways to crash and burn, so increasing the odds of succeeding long term should be your highest priority. you can always sell your local assets once you're comfortable managing rentals and ready for a market that better-suits your criteria. btw, kudos for being self-aware of your limitations.

Some thoughts on your situation overall:In terms of vetting, I personally there is a limit to how much you can mitigate risks when working with a smaller contractor.

It's pretty common practice to have something like that in a property management agreement, and if it falls under that limit they're going to pay it and not notify the owner except in regular monthly updates because it is below the threshold of what is an ordinary expense in the course of business.

Otherwise, you may be limited to doing deals that are less than or equal to the equity in your home, and miss out on some bigger opportunities.That said, fix-and-flip loans will have higher fees and interest rates than most HELOC's.

@Francisco Milan I'm a big fan of buying real estate and doing cost segregation studies.

Portfolio lender, they’re limited to certain counties though.

If OP has not already tried calling every we buy houses ad in the area, they should also do that. 3 days is very limiting though - no time to waste.