And I would constantly bring up that I would love to buy the property he was living in.

Create a list for each unit and have the seller sign.2.

you may have to save up until you have enough money to do so - down payment, closing costs, reserves, etc.House Hacking: What Is It, How to Start, and Strategies for Successit's a more powerful way to get started. 

On long-term rentals the bank likes to see signed leases which clearly you can't have with STR. 

Consider both the financial cost and the time commitment.Have I researched the program?

Sounds he’s not interested in going through the rent up stage and being an operator.

Paid platforms often offer additional features like market analytics, off-market property leads, and filters for investor-specific criteria, giving them a leg up over free options.Exactly, most platforms have to offset cost somewhere because of how expensive it is to keep the data up to date.

I could come up with a down payment for an investment property in a different state easier than my home state at prices are pretty high in the 300-400 k just for townhomes.

Yearly increasing costs will, in time, eat up any profit they have per unit.

Many will provided exaggerated numbers or omit information up front.