Time is money and I prefer spending my time with my fam and friends instead of problem tenants and legal cases. 

Just my personal opinion - get a mentor or a person who already has good experience running STR business, preferably in your area (but not 100% required). 

I’ve toyed around with avail and rentredi and apartments.com but haven’t settled on one yet.

My market is San Diego so I do not have direct referral for a GC in north Hollywood but I will say my preferred way to get contractors is direct referral.

Given the photo of that fix/flip, I assume you're OK with a "fixer upper" or would you prefer a turn-key rental?

I sent an email just a bit ago, feel free to respond to that with your preferred phone number and times that work for you and I'd be happy to connect.  

I'll put them in order of what I prefer and why:1) Save up the cash using cashflow from my current portfolio and W2 income. 

Right, because rather than give the actual correct answer and suffer the blow to your ego that you've been doing something wrong for decades, you'd prefer to take a swipe at my ego.

Others prefer to get their information and resources from multiple sources over a longer period of time.

In the event that any meaningful percentage of 10-15 million (estimates seem to vary widely depending on which news source you prefer) current illegal immigrants are deported, real estate investors will have a big problem as vacancies soar.