I live in Southern California also and am a licensed administrator for RCFEs but have stopped pursuing this path for the moment since we would need to purchase a home and renovate it.Another option if you plan on staying in the house is to rent the individual rooms (house hack).

Of more concern are rumors that the Biden administration may force sell those assets in IRA etc. etc. 

Trying to use their databases and number crunching AI's doesn't work. 

Bottom line is it sounds like there is currently no national/international database of towns that are more/less accommodating for STRs. 

They will help you do all the items you listed above, plus they have a database of contractors in Chicago to help with your maintenance needs.

Assuming you are using QuickBooks, are you tracking your finances for the series in a single QB database, say using QuickBooks "projects" for each child cell?

The Biden Administration has already took aim at "investigating" energy companies to ensure that they aren't "price gouging or making excessive profits".

. -  include in your lease that if they fail to purchase insurance, you will automatically purchase it for them and charge them for it with a 50% increase to cover your administrative costs.

The best thing you can do is make a habit of focusing on your "one thing" aka prospecting aka speaking to people on a daily basis to create new OR nurture existing relationships.Action steps:- create a list of all of your contacts - call FSBO (once you're licensed)- research CRMs that you can use to store and follow up with your database of contactsBest of luck to you on your journey!

Start building your database of name/phone/email/FB/Linkedin/address of people that know, like, and trust you and will do business with you or will recommend people do business with you.This is your #1 source of business....and the easiest business to get.That way you hit the ground running.