In our case, I work shift work and can not have a phone for 12.5 hrs while at work, my wife runs our 2 small businesses, and we have 4 kids, 3 which play travel baseball.

@Rory GalvinI don't have any experience banking or investing in Canada, so take what follows with a grain of snow.Gross income is your rents collected.Expenses include: Advertising, travel, cleaning and maintenance, commissions, insurance, legal fees, management fees, mortgage, repairs, supplies, taxes, utilities, depreciation, vacancy, capital expenditures.Gross income less expenses equals your cash flowCash flow divided by cash invested equals your cash on cash return which is the "yield" you should be comparing with other investment opportunities.If the max yield you can see yourself getting in real estate is 5%, then you aren't ready for a deal yet.

Vacation homes can make money during a pandemic (Or similar) if the travel costs to the destination are minimal.

I'm a consultant and work from the road- traveling around the country in my RV.

And travel of course.

@Bonnie Rhodes The downtown is starting to get quite cleaned up & the downtown airport is now the main commercial airport for commercial travel which should help the main part of town. 

Our keys frequently travel in beach bags, get wet, and get roughed up by sand. 

The deminimus type expense you're thinking of is a completely different concept used in a different type of business and is usually related to travel expenses.The IRS has no concept of "this deduction is allowable because it seems reasonable". 

(looking in Maine at the moment- thinking skiing or hiking travelers).

You can also focus on “essential” workers by doing things like advertising on sites for traveling nurses...etc.Just keep in mind that however you market the property, you have treat all applicants the same regardless of their income or based other fair housing rules.