Listening to YouTube big shots that have great advice on professional ways to handle problematic guests ( most are great but everyone will get bad apples), staying at the property when you have an open window of time and actually get the guest experience (this is critical), and looking at your click thru and conversion rates to get a good baseline.There is way more work to running an STR than a LTR.

The biggest thing is vetting the operator as they ultimately drive the returns.

- property values soften (keep it realistic, US real estate has never lost value over any given 10 year period in history and you can't plan for a nuclear war..)To counter-balance these negative scenarios you have: cash reserves, credit lines, W2 income, maybe business income.

And I do have the photos at the end by design, because I want a person to end the experience with a specific feeling of "oh wow, look at that, it's got that too", which helps drive conversion. 

I always put a couple nail holes and anchor bolts in their car fender before they drive away.

Because someone looking to live in the property will pay more because it's usually an emotionally drive decision.

For example, here in Columbus we've got Intel building their mega-fab which is already driving up property values and rents in certain submarkets.

Appreciation will drive your returns, not cash flow.

A more accurate way to describe it is "I received no income" - because you can have deals but still have no profit if your expenses are greater than your income.If you were actively looking for deals (and can document it) - as opposed to merely planning to start later - then you file Schedule C and claim business expanses such as marketing, driving, technology and so on. 

You may also want to check the Columbus OH market - great macroeconomics with lots of job and population growth along with major companies developing here that drive strong rental demand.