Especially with your tech background jumping into real estate investing. 

They all appreciate but peninsula is more stable in downturns and recovers the fastest, I witnessed this myself in 2012 further in east bay was still about 40% down and peninsula and "tech" cities already recovered fully.I am not sure you need a loan or not, recently I asked my mortgage broker he told me for a second home it would need to be at least 50 miles away and also in a city known for vacation activity .   

My career has been in client services and tech sales to this point, but looking for something different and have had an interest in real estate investment from afar, but it always seemed unrealistic for a novice with limited disposable income.

David Columbus, Ohio is a strong market for short term rentals due to the growing hospital systems (new build with over 900 beds), The Ohio State University with over 50,000 students and the young professional population in the growing tech industry here with companies moving in such as Intel: https://www.dispatch.com/story...

I focus on Columbus, Ohio, which has seen significant growth, especially with tech giants like Intel, Meta, Amazon, and Google setting up operations, driving up property prices and job opportunities.

Makes homes just look and feel like giant studio apartments.

The easiest is to become an affiliate and make a referral fee.The mega giant hard money lenders can make money netting 2% by lending hundreds of millions of dollars.

I can't speak much for the RTP area but I do know a big tech presence is starting to take fold in that area.

is your guys laid off in real estate of tech ??

I've been investing for a few years now but have been in tech even longer.