I am currently overseas but will return home to the US in a couple of years max (depending on how many more lockdowns is a big factor in my return). I want to house hack in a safe community, preferably a duplex/triple...

What is your average nightly rate?

If those things aren't taken care of, and quickly, you just kissed goodbye 3-4 nights of rent straight away.And just because you self manage doesn't mean you make more money. 

And diving right into OPM's could leave me at risk of people who are veterans in the industry taking advantage of me. 

Before diving any deeper, I'm hoping to swiftly reduce to 5 zip codes by eliminating the ones with median sales prices that would be too far from my budget. 

It was just last night I had come across your post about Smokey Row meetups.

I developed my own fairly sophisticated software with MS Access to help me do this because Access does everything people wish Excel could do, but there are some geniuses who have mastered Excel.The last and the very hardest part and you will be able to do what almost no broker can do and even if you find a broker who can do what I am going to tell you, then you are going to find that he is not going to burn his candle every night doing your work for you.The math is simple, but extensive.

We're seeing very high occupancy rates and nightly average rental rates so people are piling in. 

Currently my fiance is handling all the cold calling, and we are really trying to dive in head first! 

They steal stupid stuff like people's flip flops. they party late into the night on weekdays. they behave as if residents are there solely to facilitate their good time and buttonhole them for information and directions when they're out walking their pets. they tailgate at the beach access because the hosts are too cheap to pay the association dues. they trespass on resident's property to fish and sightsee then become belligerent when asked to leave. etc etc etc.It really does degrade the character of the neighborhood and the experience of living here during the high season.