well as I posted last week Oregon is now going to require wholesalers to be licensed they have carved out a special license for this activity.. those wishing to continue to wholesale will need to do full criminal and get a bond.. some will not qualify as they have bad backgrounds or crappy credit.

You absolutlely need to be direct to seller or have close, personal relationships with wholesalers and active agents.

In these markets, I would be worried about crime, activity of illegal immigrants, and such. 

The IRS generally does not allow you to deduct expenses for a property that has not been placed into service, as deductions typically apply to operational properties actively being used to produce income.

As someone actively investing in STRs and looking to scale, this raises some concerns for me about the long-term viability of this strategy.I understand the tension between hotels and STRs, especially in popular tourist destinations, but I’m curious:How real is this threat?

We had to make sure we sidestepped them and only added information to the correctly entered, active applications.

I spent a decade in advertising, before founding and running a custom wood shop for another decade, so 'm pretty good at the self-promotion.I agree with you that the more gorilla approach would be most effective and that's actually what i've been doing – calling RE agents in my service area with active listings, introducing myself to property managers and leasing agents...To answer your question, I will have to handle the work myself for 6-12 months to build out the SOPs and field service management systems, but I have a lot of relationships for those looking to "do the work".I'll check out the meet up and would love to grab a cup of coffee, I'll shoot you an email.

.- The investment portal is not properly managed, kept up to date or actively used to track financial progress of LP investments.

I keep coming across posters asking for advice on how to “scale” their investment or business activities.  

The plan includes high-yield activities such as property flips and strategic acquisitions to provide liquidity and generate returns.