I’m thankful we’re having a light snow winter with relatively mild temperatures because he’s working on renovating 6 units simultaneously for me!

Seems to me you should have no problem covering expenses in winter.

In particular, I've seen potential for this to happen in Grand County (Winter Park & Fraser) + Mount Crested Butte.

I also like Oak Park, Forest Park, and River Forest however the barrier to entry is a bit higher in those neighborhoods.If that deal doesn't work on to the next one!

Notably, Syracuse is recognized for its snowy winters, providing ample opportunities for winter sports enthusiasts.

I have experience in the Lake Lanier GA area, but the summers can get quite hot and the winter can be pretty dead, so I've been interested in checking out Boyne City, MI. 

Also, places like Lakeland and Winter Haven are growing tremendously on investors' radars for people that are trying to flip or wholesale homes.

I purposely made it this way so that it doesn't renew in the winter.

Maybe it's a bit more LA mentality, but I don't see someone from Garner to east and up to Wake Forest stomaching a 45 minute one way daily commute to where the higher income in-office jobs are located, which I'm leaning into for greater likelihood to afford rent now and increases later.

You are on the right track but remember each specific STR market / local area is going to have some tweaks - one thing I noted is that for the markets you are looking at can vary with temperatures - some different expenses/planning for areas that can have winters (snow, etc) that wouldn't be standard in other markets