In a highly scrutinized industry, its best to stay completely above board on these kind of things. 

Hopefully VRBO is taking into account the seasonality of the markets instead of applying discounts across the board.

Now I'm looking at real estate to see how I can build a small portfolio and would love to make some connections here for advice and sounding boards.  

I am doing this completely remotely, which has been a massive pain/lesson learned (topic for another day).I signed a very high-level agreement (i.e. expectations simply say "drywall and paint") with him for drywall and paint work at my home for a total of $10KI have paid $5K as a down payment as well as ~$2K in materials over time, as neededThere have been multiple break-in's in the home, and he has done me favors of working with the police, and boarding things up.

  ( flight plan already loaded)  altitude capture set.. then monitor the systems until your about 20 miles out.. descend and land.. simple.. as they say flying is hours of boarded with 3 minutes of terror.

No big, but I will go through all the outlets in the house next time I am there.Seeing as we are on the lake, we have 3 decks, so I am religious about checking the steps, deck boards and railings.

You are just a number on their board.

The reason values are all over the board is because valuation is an opinion.  

They pretty much all do it, some with predatory lending type practices on this board. 

I've been on this board since 2010 and haven't found an example yet.