If you travel often, you could also rent out your whole home when you leave.

If you get a B class low risk investment that is predictable, you should be able to refinance is 7-10 years and start your snowball.  

As a vet I would love to help other vets out.

This is for all the 'co-own curious' folks out there.I recently started a project aimed at making it easier and more affordable for people to co-own (and manage) homes together. 

I’ve been hosting for three years and recently encountered an issue I hadn’t faced before: an alteration request to check out earlier during a stay.

Cash flow? 

For instance, with STRs, why won't an investor spend an hour on AirBNB for their area to identify listings that:1) rank the highest2) occupancy 95%+3) ADR $750+4) hosts have 2+ properties5) listings are branded with 20k+ Instagram followersetcThen, reach out to those top operators; as many don't have the time or gave up on cold outreach, yet they've done the hardest 90%, have skin in the game, and outcompeted thousands of listings nearby.Agree, however you can’t reach out to the operators via Airbnb.

My plan is to start out by purchasing Single Family Homes (SFHs) in *C* class (and above) areas with a budget of $100K-$200K all in, with the goal of buying, rehabbing, renting, and repeating (BRRRR strategy) for long-term holds.

Thanks for the mention @Nathan Gesner@Jodi-Ann Birch we don't do business up in Flint, but we have encountered Gebrael Management a few times as they've tried to do business in Metro Detroit.They seem to have good processes, but please validate they will meet your expectations.Recommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

But, over time, I learned from my mistakes, refined my checklist, and built a team that could execute flawlessly.