@Mike Gi be sure to check Airbnb longer stays and Furnished Finder to see what your competition's pricing and decor are like and make your properties pet friendly if you can as this is always a way to out compete the competition.

In trying to be more helpful, I came up with two additional ideas:1.

That said, we have traveled a lot and stayed in wonderful Airbnbs over the years and have always dreamed of creating an incredible experience for someone visiting Minnesota with a short-term rental as well, so we are definitely open to that idea and have some great experience as to what we know would provide an exceptional short-term rental experience. 

Looking for any ideas on how to best approach this.

There are programs to find solds so that would be a good idea but an agent can pull directly from the MLS.

--reach out and thank them upon getting the booking and ask if they have any questions--send a "Welcome" email or automated message during the week prior to arrival--reach out the day after arrival to ask how everything was the first night and ask if there is anything that the property needs--reach out at the end of the stay (that morning or within 24 hours) and ask how everything was, anything to improve, anything to add to the house and then offer an incentive for returning guests.My 2 cents,Mike Absolutely stay in your place as Mike said.You will see things the cleaners will never let you know about.We stayed in our PF will putting up the Christmas decorations and found a cracked plastic shelf in the fridge. 

Average rental rates, vacancies, competition, growth, appreciation, etc..Ive heard of scrolling through Zillow and collecting information by looking at properties for sale/rent but was wondering if there is a site where all of this information is easily accessible or any ideas for better ways to go about it.Thanks in advance!

I’m also open to sharing resources or brainstorming ideas to help you find someone in your area who can guide you in wholesaling.Feel free to reach out if you’d like to connect further!

Both properties have a substantial amount of equity that’s essentially sitting idle.Would it be a good idea to tap into this equity (through a HELOC, cash-out refinance, etc.) to fund future fix-and-flip projects or purchase additional rental properties?

This will give you an idea of the Class of neighborhood.