Read "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing" by David Greene to better understand how to find a market and do things from a distance.

Terms should include interest rates, repayment schedules, and contingencies for unexpected issues.

My wife and I are looking into investing in short term rentals in vacation markets surrounding NYC (Catskills, Adirondacks, Poconos, etc) and just wanted to check if anyone here might have some insights they could share.

It doesn't take long to learn how to spot a good deal.6.

Why do you think purchase contracts are so long and have such small print?

The reason I went with them instead, is Ameircan offers a 80% LTV 30 year long term whereas Century at the time only did 75%LTV. 

I seek out tenants who will stay a long time, reducing vacancy, and turnover costs. 

I've been long small cap ETFs and specific small cap stocks, long BTC, long platinum, long gold, long BDCs, long fixed rate debt(sub 2 year) and long puts against mega-cap.

There are a whole lot of factors and differences among the options, even among lenders that fall under the "private lending" umbrellaSharing an article published last year that maybe can help and provide some more insights:https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/dscr-loans-terms-to-know

The flipside is that I expect the expensive markets like Beaufort will continue to appreciate strongly in the long term.