I have a buddy who does this for a living on raw land, and he pays for the software and gives us all the data for free.  

Your first year will be a learning experience, you will want to be close to the action, as you may not have the capital to pay someone to handle everything.

Let them pay the deposit with a credit card.

You get what you pay for with a bigger firm that is cheaper.

They pay their bills on time and make good tenants.

Then they have to sign a W-9 before we'll pay them.So, we've never had to deal with illegals, etc.

Use tools like:Airbnb Analytics: Monitor impressions, clicks, and overall CTR.IntelliHost: Analyze your listing for category placement and CTR improvements.RankBreeze: Track your listing's performance and ranking changes.You can also A/B test your photos by rotating lead images or running Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram) or Google Ads to measure which photo drives the most engagement.The Airbnb algorithm is continuously evolving and every host should pay attention as new features are rolled out. 

There are cheap PMs, but I think you end up paying for that in the end. 

Usually MTR comes fully furnished with utilities included, so you pay for the convenience.if the area has traveling nurses, other professionals that come for a few months for work they normally pay more, in certain cases the employer pays the rent not familiar with that particular market,  but worth looking into it.

However, with the rates and conditions of any triplexes and fourplexes we could find (we did find one, but it's in the Pendleton Heights suburb of KCMO, so we were worried about it being too dangerous of an area), we were wondering if it's worth it to buy a duplex and rent out the other half to help pay the mortgage, or if it's more worthwhile to rent an apartment and try to save up to buy a residential or commercial MFH later?