I'm looking at condos that are part of hotels/resorts, for occasional personal use (I travel a lot and need a place to come back to), and to have STR income when I'm away.

As someone who built a 200 plus portfolio of SFRs ( section 8) I can attest that for ME Personally.

I could talk about this for 10 minutes straight and it's a pretty personal decision with positives and negatives to each.

@Miguel Del Real if you are just starting out, and maybe you’ve never bought your own personal resident, it is risky to not have somebody in your corner.

Quote from @Melissa Rivera: When a tenant is late, your policy should be that payments must be in full and with a money order or cashiers check.I would contact the tenant and tell them you will not accept or cash the personal check.

It's NOT to "sell" a person on renting, NO, it's to just get them to click on it that's it, HOOK EM IN, get em to open the listing(C) REEL EM IN!   

I would personally screen my MTR tenants and have them sign a lease.

The cash came from my own personal savings and my father who invested in this deal with me.

Personal assets/liabilities:Primary Residence: Have less than 20% equity in this, rest is owned by bank at high interest rate close to 7%.

Thanks Linda Weygant have you personally done a cost seg on an SFR/STR before?