I am researching the market and will start diving deep into cleaning arrangements, repair folks, what types of properties bring the biggest return (size, more private vs more crowded cabins, closer to or further from town, hot tubs, views, etc...)

We are going to build a short-term rental property on the land (Cottonwood is a hot place for a weekend getaway).

If you're in metro Boston where the rental market is hot, in the future I'd advise you getting a rental real estate agent to take care of the lease, background check, listing, etc. 

However, you mentioned that the Austin market itself is possibly too hot to invest in Austin proper.

If you asked a seller that now and also in an especially hot market they might just say "ok, next.." but I'm just putting it out there since i dont know how motivated this seller is or what their situation is.

I'm looking to move to a new area before the end of the year and am thinking about my longer term strategy.The area I'll be moving to is a very hot market for short-term rentals.

The more i think about it, my alma mater is growing steadily over the past 5 years, there is a constant inflow of tenants, and real estate prices appear to be incredibly reasonable.

The market has slowed a little but still pretty hot

Are you exiting hot markets in search of the up and coming instead?

I met some amazing people who had some incredible stories and shared really valuable insight and experiences (...I'm part of a mastermind from some of the connections I made), variety of speakers (ALL the heavy hitters were there!)