Quote from @Greg Kasmer: I'm curious as to your comment on getting back in when the bottom has been "somewhat defined" - Is that defined by rents stabilizing and/or increasing or another metric?

This is 100% the most misunderstood aspect of rental income. 

@Jefferey EutsayIs there a specific aspect of this deal that you are hoping to get advice on?

And virtually all of them had owned rentals and maybe kept a few but were just tired on the TTT but wanted monthly cash flow . so there probably is some of that at play as well Investors that dont want to deal with the PM aspect of owning RE..

For contact management like that its awesome to search for specific types of people and locations or just data like "how long does it take to foreclose in texas".We have some other use cases as well that we use to track not only ours but competitors results online and learning what does and does not work for different aspects of the business.

While I agree that the purchase is an important part of the process, if you buy based on price and not on the STR aspect of the deal, it could fail.You might get the best damn deal on a property in an area that makes a terrible STR thus it isn't a deal at all.

In what aspect though?

Quote from @Virginia VanOeveren: To start as a private money lender, educate yourself on real estate investing and lending practices, define clear loan criteria, and conduct thorough due diligence on borrowers and properties.

Most places define short term as less than 30 days.

I'm not sure why not - one of the great parts about real estate investing is that you can build a team around you for aspects you aren't as strong at or simply want to delegate to someone/expert and do the others yourself - look up "Core 4" for example - where you can have an agent, lender, manager, contractor all at once for your investments and can theoretically just let them do all the interactive work