That is so not the case with the visiting nurses we targeted in 2020. 

Florida is so big that choosing Georgia doesn't make it driveable easily.You don't want to do STR as your first investment.

Your PM is so laughably wrong about this that I would consider reporting them if possible in your state.

The terms are pretty reasonable, and the qualification process is so much easier.

This is also impacted by how old your home is, so that was likely a factor for me.From what I can gather, it's best to increase my personal liability for now and require the tenant to get renter's insurance to secure their own belongings. 

It is so much better as we make a nice chunk of money $600-800 and don't have to argue with tenants over little repairs from security deposit/potential litigation.

The question was - which should someone put money into - this is an unanswerable question because each person's situation is so different and these two products are, as others have said, comparing apples and oranges.  

The rental above cash flows about $5,000 a month and helps offset the mortgage cost at $6300/mo.My question is: we have a lot of equity built into the rental, but the mortgage rate is so low that my calculations show shifting the debt from the primary residence loans to the rental as being a wash with the tax savings. 

It seems it is so hard to get the positive cashflow in Oregon.

@Tanya Maslach Welcome to BP Tanya, that's great you started investing in college, that is so smart.