My current thinking is Buy and Hold with flips along the way. 

Their perspectives have been invaluable in highlighting the nuanced balance between the challenges and rewards this venture entails.Self-managing, especially given the property's distance, presents unique challenges, primarily revolving around the commitment required for regular maintenance and promptly addressing tenant needs. a property management firm I'm considering offers a fee of 9.9% or an intriguing maintenance-only service at $95 per month.

I would rather control and hold title if buying property with seller financing rather than doing a Land Trust where the seller remains on title. 

Real estate generates a return through cash flow + appreciation.It appears that cash flow is negativeAppreciation appears to be 0% over 2-3 years based on zillowThe question is what you beleive the future will hold for cash-flow and appreciation.Cash-flow will likely continue to be negativeThe question is what do you think about the appreciation for the bay area.If the property continues to stay at $850,000, it will likely not be a good decision to hold on to the property.If you think the property can appreciate to $900,000, $950,000 over a few years, then it can potentially be a good reason to hold. 

Getting hold of them and then retrieving information is like trying to get water out of a stone :-/

This is for tenant occupied or turnkey properties that I want to cashflow, not hold for losses, deductions, or depreciation to offset taxes.

I strongly favor regular price reductions until leased out.Most people make the mistake of letting it sit too long when simple math points to that fact that 2 additional weeks of vacancy at $1000 per month equals $500.

Lucy McDonald My niche here in Branson is long-term buy & hold multi-family, however vacation rentals are very popular and seem to perform well.

It's a portfolio loan they underwrite and hold in house & have strict credit/DTI requirements (as they should) since they can leverage up to 95% on pure investment properties. 

Putting your real estate holdings within an LLC might protect your personal assets in the event that you are sued for your real estate endeavors.Before putting their property into an LLC, some investors choose to wait until it has increased significantly in value or developed a sizable amount of equity.