So will see how that all shakes out for PDX. really the affordable is in Townhouse production by the large production builders thats about as good as it gets..

The E-Myth by Michael Gerber- Start and operate your business with the consumer in mind... not you... not your product or service.

Or you’re not budgeting for a great product and will be obsceleted in the near future.My team provides all the above without hefty consultation fees like many STR experts/gurus do.  

Since I am new to this space, I would prefer to have as safe of an investment as possible then graduate to the more sophisticated. 

Warren Buffet has discussed this in the past saying if you had all the gold in the world you would have a giant cube of gold except for minor industrial uses, but if you had all the farmland in the world you would be able to produce a product (food) that people would buy, thus giving you a return on investment.

It's a pretty standard product these days.

Gurus teach (and I use that term lightly) MARKETING aspects, how to, without any meat of the product being traded. 

When market changes, even the most sophisticated sponsor could collapse.At the end of the day, it's better to become "active investors" where you know every single bit of your investment, your market, your realtor, your contractor, what's the actual repair cost, actual rent, appreciation and so on and so on.

Investors who aren’t experienced, knowledgeable nor sophisticated are taken by suprise that their “promised” return hasn’t materialized.  

@Andrew M. yeah, if you opened a HELOC while you opened while living there then it's likely that they don't want to extend that current product.