What’s been your biggest win (or lesson learned) in distressed property investing?

Quote from @Joy Daniels: I manage short-term rentals in the Sarasota area, and I'm always looking for innovative ways to boost occupancy rates year-round.From your experience, what marketing strategies have had the biggest impact on keeping your properties booked?

I have been listening and tuning into real estate rookie for over 2 years now, I have also been on YouTube university and watching and learning a lot about REI for over 2 years now and I am ready to apply what I know and get started my biggest goal is to get another deal under contract I understnad their will be trial an error but I'm excited about this.

Lastly, what’s been the biggest surprise about being a landlord so far?

I'm also concerned older homes have already seen their biggest jump in capital appreciation and don't have as much potential for price growth compared to newer homes.What are your thoughts on older homes?

Your biggest issue is that $50k may not let you get a nice house and have any reserves.

Not sure how many PMCs you've had bad experiences with, but we'll take exception to:"Then do a thorough research on tenant applicants (note: leaving this to a PM may be hazardous to your financial health)".BP seems to have more threads about screening mistakes by DIY landlords as opposed to PMCs.Now, if you'd have mentioned Maintenance, you'd get no argument from me:) Even the PMC industry acknowledges maintenance as one of the biggest challenges.Rereading my post, I kinda see how I sounded negative toward PMs.  

The biggest things for our energy bills are: how many ac units are on the house and do you have a hot tub.

My biggest concern is the basement.

That's one of our biggest risks it seems, however, ND is more friendly than the MN side.