They might be able to help from some other business aspects. 

I am currently working and fully cooperating with the Mississippi REC on becoming compliant in every aspect of my business.  

I've stayed in properties that offer a small selection of drinks or cheeses from local farms but have never seen it scaled to other aspects of the property.I'm wondering if any STR investors out there employ a similar arrangement?

However, there are pros and cons to this approach:Pros:Streamlined Operations: Property managers can integrate their systems more efficiently, leading to potentially better management and guest experiences.Experience and Optimization: They might have established profiles with good ratings and reviews, which can help attract more bookings.Cons:Loss of Control: If you stop working with the property manager, you could lose access to the listing and the reviews associated with it.Dependency: Your business becomes more reliant on the property manager, which could be problematic if the relationship sours or if their service quality declines.As an experienced STR manager, you're already familiar with many aspects of managing rentals.

I didn't make much money, but the most valuable aspect of the experience for me was learning how to find crafts people, acting as my own general contractor, and then learning what order in which to do repairs and improvements.

My mind works that way too.In my experience, whenever I've truly wanted to learn a new business inside and out (especially if I didn't know anything about it to begin with) I've found that it's very difficult to completely cut out the less exciting aspects of the business and whittle everything down to a short list of bullet points.There are definitely a lot of "quick start" guides out there (and they're great for highlighting the biggest action steps at the outset), but there's still a lot of learning that needs to happen to fill in the gaps.

The appealing aspect here is the ongoing population growth and other economic factors.

The one aspect that I haven't seen mentioned so far is that you can keep doing 5% down over and over again, too.

Hardwoods are beautiful if well maintained, but I have yet to meet a tenant who really cares about the maintenance aspect of wood floors.

I really want to get into flipping houses if not at least working on the in my own time, however; I am worried about the time and money aspect.