I would love to meet up with investors and agents in person in my area to learn more about real estate and any advice they may have.

I find TPs rent control too restrictive personally.

The HELOC would need to go off your personal situation but if needed you may be able to do DSCR on the short term rental.

If you can't keep control of your personal finances, you are highly unlikely to succeed in real estate investing.

i would say it depends on the overall investment strategy. im not really familiar with STR rentals in your area. personally i like the long term rentals, especially if you are trying to be hands off. we have two STR's, one we manage ourselves in FL and the other in Gatlingburg which is managed by a company. even with an STR rental company, i still find myself managing the manager. both require work and are by no means passive. long term (to me) is nice given time investment. hope this helps. 

Hi all,    I have a friend / private money person who is going to lend me money to buy a property. 

I personally would use Shane Flipping- Flipping Custom Homes. 

Below is a comprehensive list of questions that I took from my personal checklist.

Note #1 - name removedNote #2 - One entry I circled is not a bank or financial institution

Personally, I'd be very conservative in my revenue projections on something like this just in case this trend continues.