The issues you mentioned will correlate heavily with property age, but it's not limited to that.

I think the biggest thing for many is during Covid it was pushed so heavily by many on here that STR were a get rich quick model.

Agreed on the value on being what it is worth to us versus a heavily traded item like a blue chip stock. 

Traveling can slow down, and you don't want to be heavily impacted by changing conditions.With 30k in the Phila area, you can likely get into a 2-4 unit house hack if you don't have your primary residence yet.

It is a complex calculation that is heavily influenced by time-based assumptions, making it easy to trick yourself into a deal using IRR.I'd rather look at Cash on Cash returns, cash flow per door, return on equity, and equity multiple (if you're assuming a sale at some future date)

My wife and I are avid RV'ers and we have looked into this pretty heavily.

When I began heavily investing into real estate, I ended up picking Detroit, MI as one of my main markets to focus on due to the lower entry price points, and higher returns.Not sure if you ever looked into Detroit , but I would be happy to share my experiences with you.Happy to connect !

If New Years and Christmas is taken, typically the 1-2 days in between are discounted heavily to get booked in my experience.

I did direct mail in mid-2015 - 2016 heavily.

Most folks that are successful with season rentals in this area rely heavily on the ridiculous rates they can justify as a per/night fee over the 15 week peak season and then settle for a less glamorous month to month rate during the off season.