I would avoid the expensive over saturated tourist markets and go for towns which have universities and hospitals.

You have to run the numbers, watch out for saturation and unfavorable rules.

Of course Huntsville but maybe it's too saturated?

But Pittsburgh really can offer a buy in that's better than other more saturated markets.

The market is saturated with short-term rentals, and many owners are lowering their prices to stay competitive.

Be persistent with mail and try sending out volumes of mail every month and you could start with 1k and move slowly to 5k mailers.The mailer rate in the land space is getting saturated, so you may hit mailers of 5k and not get a single deal.

Looking into the STR market, i would suggest a couple things to include into your property search. 1) the STR market is very saturated here so look for something unique or offer unique amenities to your guests, this will help your property stand out 2) different set of rules for properties located within city limits vs without i.e. outside city limits doesn’t require a permit which the city is cracking down on the amount of STRs on any given street or neighborhood 3) HOA is a big deterrence as a lot of HOAs don’t want any rentals of less than 30 days so an in depth search into covenants and by laws would be doing your due diligence.

Short term rentals are a way to increase cashflow, but more and more markets are saturated with STRs which has eroded this strategy.

The market is saturated if you don’t have the creativity to look beyond the top dozen or so markets.

The market is saturated and it's unlikely demand will increase substantially any time soon.