(For those not familiar with Houston, the heights is a trendy neighborhood near downtown that originated in the 1920s and is experiencing a lot of new commercial and residential builds including trendy restaurants, coffee shops, and boutique stores)I have currently have a 5000 sqft property with a 1100sqft house (simple 2bed/1bath) built in 1930 and restored about 10 years ago.

I have worked with hundreds of agents in every major franchise, and lots of boutique agencies.

Hey LA pros,I am a Florida Realtor and investor with a boutique investment brokerage in Tampa, (Circuitous Realty) but I primarily live in West Hollywood. 

@Craig Moore  also we work at a flat fee broker  12k a year  flat fee 100% shop after that.they are full service thoughthere are brokers in Oregon that are as low as 300 a month and a few hundred per transactionthe day of HUGE splits with the brokerage is long gone on the west coast.. the KW and REmax's of the world are usually 2 to 3X as expensive and many starting out are best served to go there as there is training and teams to get on.. once you have your clientele your either making so much money that 30k for brokerage is  nothing or you move on to the boutique brokers like we did.

Go boutique, you'll spend less monthly.Good luck!

However, I also believe there are opportunities for "boutique" booking sites (possibly Vuepeer - it would be interesting to understand how you differentiate yourself)and solutions like Evolve as @Jon Crosby described, however they too are getting closer to the guest and from what I understand have acquired properties of their own. 

You need something a bit more boutique.

@Scott Meyers  I have no where near the experience you have in storage I just owned a little boutique one in Portlandia.. it had 44 units and 7k of office above them.. nice building.it was on the river so I condo platted it and sold the storages to all the house boat folks who lived across the levi and turned the office space ( which was a bear to rent) into climate controlled storage wine and such.. then sold those off individually to other higher end type folks.. we did quite well on this project..

You can't compare a motel 6 in the deep east Texas "middle of nowhere" road to a highly desirable boutique hotel on the beach front in Hawaii.Both participate in the industry national average but one will have about 40% occupancy rate and the other probably has a waiting list year round.My advice is when you look at properties, learn the micro-economics of that city, neighborhood, zip, down to the level of the street corner so you can verify that you know exactly the nightly rate, the occupancy rate, who's the competition, what kind of customers go to that hotel (e.g. truck drivers or fortune 500 CEOs), etc.Also, what the asking price is according to the "industry" is irrelevant if you can't meet YOUR business objectives.

A couple things that will assist putting you ahead of the crowd at your age.Obtain your RE license - access, education and opportunities - go with a boutique where you can learn property management as well.Join a local REIA - Diversified Investors Group - 20+ meeting a month, list serve, education, discounts.Let me know me know if you have any questions.Regards,Joe Scorese