Looking at comps around the neighborhood I believe we could easily get $2950 - $3100/month in rent.Other important things to note:The neighborhood is Edgewater, CO and is becoming extremely popular as the town is doing a lot of planning and lots of new community marketplaces, bars, etc are being developed or have already opened.

In hot metro areas, which are both vacation destinations and residential hubs, investors have the unique opportunity to combine these strategies to boost their cash flow in their own city.While it typically requires a bit more work than long-term rentals, house hacking with STRs in popular metro areas allows you to live where you want and maximize your return while living there.

The most popular kind here in Texas is a 20 year adjustable rate loan HOWEVER, you can certainly find 30 year fixed rate commercial loans and the rates on those are in the mid 4's or so right now? 

The podcasts are particularly popular. 

It is certainly a popular strategy but not for everyone.

Your are right in one sense that Zillow has mislead the public, but they have done it in the same way nearly every public company does, sometimes by choice, sometimes by convention. 

Real estate is a popular investment.

thankfully the market went insane and i was able to make a profit even with my inexperience, BP definitely influenced all of my choices and in hindsight if i applied more of the tips i learned from listening to the podcast and reading all the books recommended i shouldn't have made half the mistakes but live and learn. on to the next one!

My assumption and do not take this personally if you are just looking for ideas on what to do with $100k  vs actual guidance my guess is you do not have much time to manage a project or a short term rental so that limits your choices.

If they kids don't want it then there is a choice.