These interests are a function of my fundamental finance education, my passion for and previous involvement with real estate investment, and my personal nature.

Sometimes there might be fundamental reasons a location has higher demand beyond just crazy speculation.

I would love to meet up and learn all the fundamentals. 

They are both great at learning the fundamentals.

THEN, during the phase where a SFH investment went bad, there is the stress of hearing about, and PERSONALLY dealing with a stressing about it. ie. tenant stops paying rent, political problems in the city causing massive differences in fundamentals, tornado hits your house, then you are IN THE THICK OF IT for a few months, dealing with the fact that this investment you already put 10-12 hours into, probably will take another 10-12 hours of your own stress as the $50K loss materialized.

That's not implying you have a risky investment, just that the asset class is higher risk and requires much more due diligence and good investor fundamentals.

Definately work with an experienced STR agent wherever you go and use someone who not only knows how to underwrite STRs and has paid data to help you do that, but also someone who understands the fundamentals of what makes a successful STR/MTR and give you the best chance at succeeding and being in the top 10% of property listings.I hope this is helpful, best of luck, and feel free to reach out if you need anything.  

To be clear, I am not saying there is nothing to be concerned with, but as far as any disease impacting one of the fundamental industries of our country that goes well beyond the scope of individual investors and/or small groups.Last thought: Warren Buffet says, "Buy when there is blood in the streets." 

If there were better fundamentals other than it's the next "Hot Spot" I'd feel a little more comfortable.

I personally would stay away from all the guru seminars until you get a good understanding of which ones are even worth going to and that you understand fundamentals of different strategies.