My wife and I have jumped in and invested in two separate STR properties in the Blue Ridge area. 

For the property I purchase, I’d like to keep my monthly mortgage payments at $2,000 or less.I prefer a turn-key property since this is my first rental, and I want to start generating monthly cash flow immediately without the delay of repairs or managing two mortgages.

I have two 3/2 properties and two 4/3 properties.

I do have two really good mentors / coaches I work with that would be able to provide more input but they do charge for their time.

I am cross eyed by all the FB and Instagram gurus but one or two seem to be legit and I absolutely want a mentor and a team.

There’s two components of household:1) the “who”2) the “how”“Who” is living together is easy: that’s the tenants.

The insights shared by the Realtors, @Zeke Liston, @Jimmy Lieu, @Nathan Gesner, @Samuel Diouf, @Sam McCormack, @Min Zhang provide a solid foundation for anyone starting out in this industry.From a property management perspective, it's great to see you're considering the long-term rental strategy.

Upon logging into my Stessa account, I discovered that all my property rent rolls, and transaction history from the past two years had disappeared.

So, they can markup what they paid out and keep the difference.Most PMC industry software has these two options built in.So, it's just a matter of understanding how your PMC is marking up maintenance and not expecting it to be for free.Regarding the specific charges you mentioned - there has to be some level of trust with your PMC. 

Just my two cents, best of luck on the journey!