These would be 7-10 year holds, so in that time frame, as the assets age, am I going to start being better off running the assets traditionally as the R&M expenses begin to increase over time?  

I guess the traditional style of getting emails, forwarding them along, etc.?

I got my appetite whetted for RE when I put our own house (which we were renting) on Airbnb and seeing the power of STRs firsthand.Even though Austin has already appreciated quite a bit, I think it's still a great market to get into for STRs and even traditional rental properties.Looking forward to connecting with other like-minded real estate go-getters!

He does traditional brokerage as well...happy to make an introduction. 

The broker on this deal was extremely distant to say the least, I was always directed to the assistant who was handling the deal...who was "learning" how to do his job, to put it in a nice way.Come to find out apparently they had been scaring off like 95% of the people interested because they sincerely thought it could not get traditional financing.

Now, if A and B do not both 'check out' (my guess is that they won't) you may be stuck exploring a more traditional financing and find an outside resource to manage type of route. 

Tying it all togetherThis year I will be more focused than ever on both my traditional financial investments and the investments I have mentioned here.

I own 9 units so far that I purchased traditionally- but now I want to try and scale fast.

In no way does that undermine the brokers and agents who pay for access to the system.Just because the traditional model is the way you've always done it, doesn't mean that's the way it should always be done. 

If you are new to wholesaling I'd recommend that you go the traditional route going after properties that aren't listed.