I used a real estate agent to locate this property.

For the rest of this post, I will assume your goal is financial freedom.There are two location requirements for financial freedom.Rents outpace inflation.The rent continues for the rest of your life.Here is the problem with investing where rents do not outpace inflation.I was evaluating a location and determined the average rent growth rate was about 2%.

This is thanks to being in better locations with higher appreciation, steeper rent increases, less tenant issues, and less turnover/churn. 

The intermediary must be in place prior to the closing of your sale.Congratulations on the successful buy and hold.  

It is much cheaper and possible in any physical location.

You can buy 2-3 properties depending on your location and sale price.

That only ties up the property of the seller until you're able to locate a buyer which could never be.

I'm not sure where you heard your information, but it is clearly from a person who either has no experience in STR's, or if they had an STR they ran it poorly or the STR was situated in a bad location.  

Active forums are available on sites like BiggerPockets, where you may meet seasoned investors and possibly even locate private loans.Look into local hard money lenders.

Reaching out to the tenant is not really effective since they can tell you anything, and I have never contacted any tenants prior to owning a property.