If the answer is yes and you feel confident, I would start to talk to a realtor in your area and start asking questions.

Please message me if you'd like it.This made me confident with my ability to assess properties and found MANY MANY MANY (I'd say about 90%) during this dry run period that made absolutely no financial sense to invest in.

In Salt Lake I have found houses in my area and price range with 4-5 bedrooms so I'm confident between friends and rental websites I would be able to cover the mortgage and house-hack that way. 

I've been looking for turnkeys myself and with an agent but nothing is seeming to meet the minimum cash flow requirements and there are a couple of 8-20 unit complexes in the area that I like that do seem to make sense in the immediate future and I am confident I could piece together a few other investors to complete the picture. 

Like you, I started with an STR close-ish to LA (though not in Big Bear), then once I felt confident, started buying out of state in a more year-round market.STRs take more time than LTRs, it's true, but they are far from a full-time job (especially a full-time job in entertainment!).  

If they didn't pay the mortgage why are you confident that they'll pay the rent which is presumably higher?

It was actually the track record that I had to rebuild first...and once I did that, I was able to confidently approach people and met private lenders as a result.You have to go out there and network with people.

Some details below:Purchase price: $438k with $13k credit Appraisal in it's current condition: $477kBuilding across the street (same layout, slightly better condition) just went under contract for $575kI'm very confident the property will be worth at least $500k once the renovation is complete-- just not sure how to get there!

Being an agent in the area over the past few years, I feel confident they will rent fairly easily, however, I may bump up that number a bit for some cushion. 

Once you know your numbers to a T then you will have a lot more confidence and feel you might not need to "slave" to gain knowledge or wisdom from someone else.