I work with a lot of househackers and they're typically on the 12 month cycle, rinse and repeat.While the proposition of acquiring an investment property outside of your market in a "landlord friendly" state may sound appealing, i would recommend you stay local for now and househack another couple of properties over the next few years until you've got some more time / experience under your belt.you would need a management company to cover your property that is outside of your market which would not only take 8-10% of your gross it would also leave you a bit vulnerable to a property management company that you A.)know nothing about and B.)you won't have the experience or cashflow or proximity to deal with any headaches that may arise.i would recommend staying local and househacking your way along for now and then maybe hire a local property management company initially to work with your current/local properties to get a taste of what to expect if and when you begin investing outside of your market.

Every now and then I will also run into a neighbor that can do that, it's their hobby or in their knowledge set, but most neighbors just don't have it. 

If no mortgage and/or if the mortgage and the lease doesn't restrict assignment, then you can set up an LLC, warranty deed the property to it, and assign the lease.

If you have the money and you can do something with it in California and you trust that the money will grow more there, then that's what I would do 

I'm open to either approach but I'm leaning more towards buying something that I can live in for a short time while I fix it up/renovate it and then move out and set it up as a long term rental and move on to the next property. 

Have you had any more success investing in Phoenix since then?

The worst thing is to pay for a service where you don't get a benefit.If you have STR's and actively manage them, then there is a good chance that you can treat the propreties as active instead of passive which will allow you to offset the losses with other forms of income such as wages, interest, dividends, gains, etc.

A two bedroom 1,300 sq ft cabin is going to go for way less than a 2 bed, 2,400 sq ft cabin.One of the issues out there too is that some are setup as legal 2 bedroom cabins because of the septic but then they have lofts and such that allow you to rent them out as 3 or even four bedroom cabins to improve the rent.You mentioned one nearby you with a similar layout.

If investors want to just be lenders then I would work with them as a lender on the deal so you don't have to setup a syndication also not sure where you are located (app doesn't say) but if investors California may be way around syndicating 

I work with a ton of new investors as a realtor the #1 way to get started is just find a 2-4 unit in decent shape and buy it low down with conventional financing 5-10% then you can live in it for a year and do another next year.