Looking for guidance on how to wholesale in an area that is highly rated for livability but I don't live near there. 

Columbus is an excellent rental market.

I can see an explicit exception in CA Tax Code § 17561 that says you can not use the qualifications in Section 469(c)(7) (Real estate professional) to render that income as non-passive, but I see no callout for 1.469-1T and, as such - as a non-CPA - I do not (yet) see a reason why we cannot follow the same rules for CA that we do for our federal taxes; e.g., if the business is not a "rental" business per tax code, we count that income as non-passive and offset other income (W2, etc) similarly.Does anybody else have some guidance (or opinions) on this matter?

Now you have a whopping 12,000 when lenders want about 50k in a 5 mile radius minimum.Now if an area has 200k in 5 miles and growing by 15% to 230k with affluent area that can be a positive. 

Just an FYI, Booking.com came online in 2000.

You might also want to look into DSCR loans since it’s an STR.

@Malachi Gutt, Dallas is an exciting place to be investing right now.

This is an industry problem. 

If you're willing and able, I do recommend the "house hacking" strategy which is just a fancy name for buying a rental property and living in one of the units, because you'll get very favorable financing - an owner-occupied fixed-rate 30-year mortgage.I'd also say, analyze that property as if you won't live there and it's a pure rental, and make sure the property is still cash flow positive if there's a tenant in your unit because then you'll know if it's actually a good investment.And when you analyze it, include payment of a property manager in your #s because if you don't, and doing so would make it go cash flow negative, then you've just bought yourself a job because you literally can't step away from managing it without losing money.

Mine is that as an investment real estate agent, we operate like a wholesaler but with licensing!