I should have focused on books and farmed out tax prep early on to get the hang of things, and a few critical years here and there, at least.

@Brett FerraraOperating agreement would be very critical as you need to determine how to resolve disagreements, but someone out who wants out, who is making decisions and running the day to day.

My wife/business partner have eliminated most if not all "Bad" debt to leverage our time to bulid a business while at the same time positioning ourselves to borrow when the rate of return justifies the situation.During the paydown period we learned along that an solid foundation in financial education is critical to successful growth.In our opinion you need both to bulid wealth.Live below your means so later you can grow your means...Be debt free but able to leverage when an opportunity arises...Just our two since cents...  

Use their criticisms to help push you out of your comfort zone, Respect them for who they are and move on.

The professional and comprehensive handling of your reservations is critical if you want to maximize your investment in your vacation rental business.

Not sitting with an attorney would mean you end up with some boiler plate operating agreement and run the risk of missing issues that might be critical in the future.  

All the naysayers in this thread critical of this technique will not help pay for any damage you could have otherwise prevented by seeing how the prospective tenant lives. 

Putting the proper weight on each indicator is critical and comes down to skill and experience. 

If you have a knack for numbers then you can analyze deals as a real estate agent - go get your CCIM and that's probably just as valuable (it's definitely more applicable).With that said, I do share agreement with some of my critics (*wink*).  

@Ryan Rodriguez I don't think hands on experience is critical, but it helps to have it when people try to blow smoke up your arse (which, not surprisingly happens a lot in construction world).