@Nicholas Dillon If you sell a property and perform a 1031 exchange but do not reinvest all the proceeds, the leftover portion (called "boot") is subject to taxation.

It reminds me of the Charles Schwab study - their best performing retail investment accounts were from dead people that never closed out the account.

and maybe change the water once or twice per year).I always consider 40% of what sales person say, matches the actual performance.

I've noticed properties that are 2 bedrooms or less tend to perform better on this platform. 

RTR advertises high returns as part of their marketing strategy, but the reality is that many of their properties do not perform as well as advertised.

Be sure you are comfortable with the math and know exactly how much you should be getting depending on how the property performs at different levels.  

The real estate investing industry uses "Classes" to rank property performance risk, but there's NO agreed upon industry model:(Here's what we use for our Metro Detroit market: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?

If this fails, then perform a land trust strategy.

Quit expecting the tenant to 'perform' for you. 

I’ve tried VRBO and Furnished Finder, but they didn’t perform well in my market.