It also gave me the chance to experiment with short-term rentals before transitioning to a long-term hold, reinforcing my strategy for growing a real estate portfolio.

If so, what strategies worked for you?

@Derick Jennings Without knowing more about your situation, I'd likely recommend a house hack, a strategy I wish I would have known about when I got started.

The STR loophole would work on the properties above, and then I could connect you to my CPA who has some great strategies like investing in Solar to keep more of your money. 

I am not sure I agree with that strategy.

Make sure you have other exit strategies in place, Fort Worth allows up to 5 unrelated people last time I checked.

Would be happy to connect to discuss strategies.

I was wondering if most wholesalers have stopped using direct mail and just moved to google/facebook to find deals?

A great resource to check out is The Frugalwoods—they share practical strategies for cutting food expenses without sacrificing quality.

Although I am still new to real estate, the strategy that seems most appealing to me is long-term rentals, but in regard to investing in real estate, I am very open to any other strategies in the business.