Look at your competitors in your market to understand what you're competing against  3) if you're using Furnished Finder, understand that it's a lead gen funnel only and not an online booking site.

Leveraging Robbie's local market expertise, we quickly evaluated the property's potential.

(From there find an agency that specializes in the type of project you are looking for, set up Zillow alerts and watch- understand the market you are diving into so you can spot a deal, a good agent should do this for you too!)

Are there strategies for furnishing or marketing it as an MTR/STR that will enhance the chances of it being booked?

The costs are lower but the commute is easy making it the perfect sister city to HSV and thus I believe powerful from an investment stance.

Leveraging Seth's local market expertise, we quickly evaluated the property's potential.

It’s a part of the state many investors stay away from because they don’t know the market, if you’re from the area and know it well this could be advantage for you!

My wife and I are interested in expanding to help bump up our cash flow to help at least one of us exit our current W2 jobs but are hesitant to do so given the current market climate. 

In my market, if I do not remove contingencies or change the standard agreement I have 17 days to pull out for whatever reason I desire.  

If you want to work with investors I would invest into cold calling to find deals and then sell them off market to investors.