Truly it’s not purely passive since I self-manage 17 units but I’m not leaving my W2 to retire at 32 anyhow.  

Purely anecdotal here…With the rise of YouTube influencers hawking “passive” income through STRs, a lot of people got into the business, either naive to the work involved, or disinterested solely thinking it was a quick way to make money.Money can be made, however real estate has traditionally been a long play.What’s crazy to me, is at the interest rates and price paid, there’s no way THOSE particular people weren’t making money.

Pure appreciation plays are riskier.

Those are all options to eventually use your primary as a rental without putting 20% down.When buying a pure rental property with conventional financing, you would have to put at least 20% down in most all conventional cases. 

A person's potential home isn't viewed as purely a commodity, it's an emotional reaction, e.g.: Will I like coming home to this place?

I wouldn't shy away from getting started with STR, but would pick a property thats not in a pure-play vacation/tertiary market so that the property could be easily converted into a long-term rental if the STR doesn't work out

I own pure commercial, mixed-use, SFRs, small multis 2-10 units. 

Good luck.Regards,Joy

Joy.

:)You would have to flip 80 homes a year for five years and make $50,000 pure profit on each one.