I think the conclusion drawn by those experienced in STR is that they are best in popular year round vacation destinations.

I've accidentally ran across a property that has 15 vacation rental units and a large commercial space in a popular vacation area.How would I find the potential rent per week?

Panelization is certainly getting more popular in this area yet still rare.

House hacking is one of the most popular ways that people start...there are multiple ways to do that--beyond conventional financing, you could also look in to seller financed deals or land contracts. 

Zillow is a popular search engine and there are a lot of vacation rental sites. 

Happily the person decided to cancel and take another place even though this is popular time of year with the leaf changes

A lot of people like Madison Management, they seem to have become popular in the last couple years, and are unable to be as responsive as they used to be.I use Allied Servicing for a performing note, they are bare bones, minimal reporting capability. 

If your name is listed as the owner then anyone who is mailing to or calling absentee owners (which is a very popular lead category with the late night gurus) can and will find your information and contact you.

Contrary to popular belief, which is just showing up #1 for every keyword, statistically speaking if you only show a couple of times in those high positions you end up getting 1 click and lets say you have a 4% conversation rate your going to have to get a lot of those really expensive clicks in order to get a conversion but if your bidding at a fraction of the rate your going to get a lot more traffic. 

Even if you don't buy the part from them, that tells you about what the part costs when it's on the other side of a UPS truck.The big-box stores like Home Depot or Lowe's will stock a few really popular parts, like electric range elements, knobs, water filters, etc.