There are several ways to run and make sure you are maximizing your rental income while keeping your living expense as low as possible.

DSCR lenders have a tendency to pull stuff like this all the time, especially on low value assets like the one you are trying to buy.

Been trying to soak in as much information as I can through the forum and books, currently reading "Hot to Invest in Real Estate", have read, "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing", "Short Term Rental, Long Term Wealth", "Rich Dad Poor Dad", and "The Book on Investing In RE with No (and low) Money Down".

.* And for low performing properties one of the features i really like is you can make a change to your listing - lets say update the property description, log it, then see if this makes any chances in your placement.I'm not affiliated with them but think its a great tool to turn around poor performing properties - assuming the STR is competitive compared to your competition.I agree with Henry that you can probably do better self-managing IF you have the time and appetite for dealing with guests and learning the dos and don't....Heres is the turnaround of one of our Floridas STR that was lagging - now back to near the top on the first page.  

Most lenders allow the buyers to do their own rehab work, but some don't depending on the buyers experience level. 

Come meet 10 to 20 other local Real Estate investors at different levels in their businesses.

Alot of brokers try to sell people into low (relative to interest rates) or negative cash on cash deals because they convenience the buyer that "real estate goes up".

Rates are too low forcing more buyers into the market making more competition.

The potential in the Bay Area or other coastal markets is massive, but we have seen the risk is also high and the consistency for the average investor can be low.

Not too low either, you don't want to go with someone who is just focused on price as this is a quality of a not-so-great accountant.