It's definitely gotten really popular over the past few years and some people have built very successful businesses off of it, but if you aren't looking to do that full time then I would recommend buying a property instead as your margins will be far better and you have more options to get out of it if the market or your rentals go south.

This makes Augusta a pretty popular place to invest for out of state and even out of country investors.

Some things I do to avoid bad situations: screen well, only have properties in good locations where people actually want to live (I find tenants behave better when they know they have a good thing going for them and that they are easily replaceable), set proper expectations, have a rock solid lease, go over it with new tenants to make sure everything is clear and agreed upon, and enforce the lease by issuing a formal notice to pay or quit every single time rent is late by even one day (and charge the late fee), or a formal notice to cure or quit every time there is a lease violation.

They were popular because they were cheap, since your walls were also your roof.

And have them draft you a rock solid contract that protects your future interests in situations like this in the future.

My wife's parents live in Castle Rock (1.5 hours away). 

There is a reason Black Rock has an entire division dedicated to just selling C4D. 

I had the listing on Avail (which I use as a rental manager, and posts to many other popular rental sites), Zillow, and Facebook Marketplace.I already have a Section 8 tenant at Property #1 (which I acquired during the purchase), so I'm not opposed to the program at all, and to be honest, they pay above market rent in my area, so that worked for me.

Your next real estate competition might not be Black Rock or Bezos...it could be coming from the family of the friends you grew up with. 

@Ryan Paltridge I have helped 3 BiggerPockets investors buy 4 STRs in Scottsdale in the last 12 months.My recommendation would be to concentrate on zip codes in popular locations that also have more non-HOA options.These would be 85251, 85250, 85257 for options near Old Town.