It was akin to the act of deciding on a category cuisine, picking a well regarded restaurant and trusting the chef.

When you say pull your money out of it, would you be paying cash for the property?

If I'd know that I'd be paying it for the life of the loan I would have been better off paying the extra 5% down payment and enjoyed the lower interest rate but I don't recall ever being informed of that or reading it anywhere in my documents.

If you have trusted family members, and they are willing, of course, then yes, they can be your boots on the ground. 

@Alex Perez  aside from the advice you received already pay attention and get a good fabric on your furniture.

But imagine you don't pay cash but rather borrow so your 5k cash/closing-down payment to buy a 100k STR, then in year 1 it rises 2k - only a paltry 2%, but you make a 40% profit as you are levered 20:1, and that beats the best year for stocks ever. 

Now you need to figure out how to find deals and pay for them.

Like do some cleaning job, contacting maintenance people, knowing how to pay water bills etc. these are all the basic work when you become a landlord and you need to know how to manage your property first.

The plan is to Refinance after a year, applying what is pulled out, back to the mostgage to pay it off as quick as posble.

You do not pay them one single cent."