Cash flow has been hampered by an increase in cost of ownership recently, specifically insurance. 

They have carrying costs.

I'm meeting with a couple agents i was referred to through my network and am wondering what critical questions I should be asking them to understand if they are the right partners for me in this market, especially considering I will be managing this investment from the other side of the country, and what info I should be prepared to provide to them.

Some places (including my own market) require an out of area owner to use a local property manager.

I have some flexibility but rely heavily on my team for admin work and the day-to-day operations of property management.

A great way to get started if you currently have a W2 job is to buy a house hack like a duplex or a fourplex where you can move into one of the units and continue to rent/manage the other units.

So now I have both my personal residence and a leased property as STRs.Even though I live 3 hours away from my leased STR property, I've built a team that assists with managing it, so I don't have to be there all the time.Here are some key things I've learned:Regulations: Research the specific STR regulations in the state and city where you're looking to buy.

No management costs?

Found T&H realty services to be pretty interesting as they provide both buyer brokerage service (to help me find deals) as well as do property management i.e. they are not full turnkey provider necessarily, but reduces some of the hassle for me I guess as an out of state investor. 

The cost is really expensive for QBO.