@Simon Stahl - I have purchased 8 TK properties over the past four years with IRA's in a couple different ways.

I've seen a couple REI meetings but haven't attended any yet due to times.

A couple of pointers:Some groups are simply meet n greets and some have presentations on topicsSome groups are focused on selling products and bootcampsThere is a list of local events here on BP under Community>Networking Events. 

We looked at a couple different properties and drove by probably two dozen.

I'm sure some of you may have heard of this but I know there are many who haven't looked into this yet.Proximity marketing has been used by large retail stores for a couple years now.

Within a couple months I had began to know every street in Alamogordo like the back of my hand and how to find anything on the county property accessor website.

I also heard about delayed financing in the podcast a couple weeks ago.

I try and discount some night just to get the couple bookings I have gotten via AirBNB.Homeaway is also constantly rolling out new improvements to the website and app.They now have pricing tools and other analytic that show competitors pricing with graphs and charts.They also show if someone did an inquiry and booked another property and you can see what the other property is to see the competition.

For those people SAVING less than 30K per year... rentals or turnkey rentals are the way to go at least until you have a good knowledge and cashflow base of a couple thousand every month.

If you can't qualify for conforming money,that's one thing, but if you're just worried about the carrying costs for an extra couple of months, my suggestion would be just wait and eat the short term costs.