A lot of the houses I see won't cash flow if you do traditional and so it seems to me the only way I would be able to do this is by renting by the room.Thanks in advance

We financed the deal through a local bank with a traditional 30 year fixed rate mortgage.

And it will impact both traditional mortgages and other lines of credit, like a HELOC.

I was at a low price point so even if this fails as a STR I can transition back to LTR and be ok.I avoided the traditional vacation markets simply because in my opinion they're oversaturated and too much competition.

The deal the lenders (hard and traditional) the rehabber and the property management. 

A low income traditional tenant might move out owing you money for damages and you often can't do much about it because you can't productively sue someone who is broke.

Traditional 20% down from Bank they work with.

While this is our first rental, we are wanting to keep things simple and prefer a more traditional Tennant. 

HELOCs give you more flexibility (in how you pay them back) than a traditional amortized loan. 

Also contemplating going with traditional lending on the purchase of the STR property, but would like the benefit of being able to be a cash buyer if we were to acquire a killer off-market deal (of course hoping to in this current market).