If a property is owner occupied there is additional leeway that you have, for example certain laws that would apply to a traditional landlord would not apply to you if the property is your primary residence. 

For his firm, he has chosen to be compensated by managing traditional investment portfolios, so anyone using annuities would take away from his potential AUM so he tries to attract and convert them. 

Given that you have already set up essential automations (Hospitable, Pricelabs, Schlage, etc.) and built solid relationships with local services (cleaning company), you might not need a traditional full-service manager.

I am leaning towards the BRRRR method or traditional LR once the right property comes across.

From late 2022, we did not do traditional value add multifamily deals because we could not make the numbers work due to the distressed capital markets terms that were available in the market... this is essentially why the market came down so much because buyers like us were not buying.

There are bank statement loans, non traditional financing.

Due to more favorable loan terms (and a bit of impatience/ignorance on my part) we went the traditional financing route for the property, with my wife and I both being on the loan. 

Even 1% rule is not achievable in Austin for the most part unless you doing some non-traditional. 

However, I still learned a lot since short term rentals have unique insurance needs that aren't always met with traditional policies.

Traditional banks tend to not have this product.