But based on what I know around the country, there aren't many areas doing well right now with STR's.I will probably keep mine as long as I have a full time renter, but unless short term picks up, I will probably sell.

If you don't have any leads or don't know where to start here are a couple suggestions: ask brokers who people use for debt, find a mortgage broker as they have access to different buckets of capital, use a website like CoStar to look at closed transaction over the last 12 months and see who they used for debt.

Taya covered for him and lied about repairs being completed when they were not, hid real damage with the progress photos, and so much more.I paid 13k for a roof on a property last November that was never completed, when I confronted them about it, they lied and told us that it had been and took deceiving photos that hid the work that had not been completed.

Or long term property management? 

Nicholas, as long as you live in one of the units for at least one year, then you should qualify for an FHA loan.

Two things: 1) how recently was the last job your conversation with this "old-school" investor?

My current primary ( scenario 1) Keep the primary for the life of the loan ( current rate is 4.5 so i dont see my self refinancing anytime soon)current home value 1,150,000Loan amount 935,000appreciation estimate 5% per year after a 28 year hold and the house is paid off I would have a house worth 4,312,000$my current mortgage is 6125$ ( piti) included My second option( scenario 2) Sell the house, walk away with $150 ,000 ish in hand and put that into a low cost index fund Rent a house elsewhere for about 3000$ ish and take the extra 3000$ im saving everymonths from not having to pay my mortgage and puting that money in the index fund as well I ran the numbers on both of these scenarios and doing what I mentioned above would break even at about 28 years meaning my stock account would be worth 4.3 million just like my house would , but the only is that holding a house for 28 year would mean 28 years of property taxes, loan interest ,home insurance and repairs etc whick I calculated to be about 1,200,000$ at minimum which raised my eyebrows to say the least Also i understand that each of these options ( stock market vs real estate ) will have there tax consequences ( long term capital gains) so any thoughts on that would be appreciated as well.  

So if you can target a little nicer property you can enjoy better interest rates for your long term hold. 

Very informative and interesting post,I too was questioning this last week.EVERY rehabbed house around here is grey!

I would also recommend doing a balloon payment sometime from 2-5 years of executing the deal so you don't have the service the loan for a long time.