I have zero college education, never read a RE book, listen to a podcast, or been to any seminar, yet there is really nothing in RE I have not done. " Give me guys that are poor smart and hungry vs a college grad any day " :) All the best 

If you want to get a job done, give it to a busy person. 

One of the fundamental rules to all investing is, "are you going to make a profit and can you support the deal until you do?"

I'd do negative CF although not now-- I'm going to wait for the market to bottom.

One must study what else was going on during that timeline to figure out what items actually weighed in.Higher interest rates do negatively affect the affordability index IF no other factors are involved.

@Jim K.was spot-on about the benefits so I won't reiterate, but STRs have far more benefits to society than they do negatives.

Additionally, to be perfectly clear, I too won't do negative cash-flow.