In the last year I've replaced a water heater, oven, fridge, oil tank, bathroom vanity...and those are the big ticket items.

Do you know of any big ticket items that will be coming up soon?

Proper identification of tenants is also needed if you want any chance of having local code enforcement write tickets against the tenant and not the owner.Any Legal Action Documents: you’ll definitely want to know if the current landlord is evicting or suing the current tenant(s).

Any tourist who'd like to go that route would have to pay much more money for their flight since all flights to Cozumel are charter flights, that are subsidized as part of the all-inclusive package (that you won't get if you stay in a short-term rental).

Just one plane ticket (not even including the cost to park, rent a car, hotel) is worth about 4 months of the PM fee for me.

Turns out when we looked the tenant up their "service animal" bit the adjacent property owner and received a ticket from code enforcement for not keeping their dog on their property.  

Depending on your preferences and tolerance, you can rent a room/bathroom in your home temporarily to bring some income to help with the mortgage.If you have a desirable newer home in the area people like with good schools, you will have no problem renting it in the future.Some more thoughts on STR possibilities - most properties in our area, that are not in HOA and have no restrictive covenants, will be older homes, thus potentially requiring more repairs and capital for large ticket items.

Things don't normally cash flow here (appreciation is the golden ticket here instead, but then you are into the category of speculation), but prices are super high right now.

This is wrong.An individual does not provide a K-1 to a partner after preparing their individual return.Also bad advise for a CPA to suggest for the original poster to speak with a tax attorney.Most tax attorney's deal with big ticket tax items(interpreting new tax laws, requesting private letter rulings, defending clients infront of the IRS tax courts, etc).

This assumes new cosmetic finishes throughout, new landscaping, moving a wall or two, and a couple bigger ticket items like HVAC, panel, roof, sewer, etc.