Quote from @Michael Smythe: @Jay Hinrichs you might find this story interesting.https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/michigan/2024/05/...Someone's gotta start the long road back! 

DIYing the place can help save money, but for someone that doesn't have all the tools and know how, it'll probably take longer and might cost more.

I plan to spend the next year or so educating myself on the markets near me and (maybe) do a duplex build to sell or rent.

They think they can save money, but they end up spending it by taking too long, doing the job wrong, etc.

There are normally three traits to make a business successful - Experience, Money, Time.You mentioned already not having the experience.

As an accident to start a short-term rental for more than 3 years and wanted to end it. 1) The number from CPA for this short-term is worse than any other long-term rentals. 2) the time spend for this short-term is  >=5  long-term rentals. 3) from Sep-2024, there are 6 books to the end of the year. 4) Insurance of short-term increased 27% and tax will increased without doubt.So tried to cancel all the reservation from AirBNB two month away.

like - your own market. or a market a couple hours away that you can spend some time in person in. or where you went to college. or where you like to vacation.

How quickly you can start making money with them?

I have smart roku tvs in some rooms, and just added roku devices in others, and the remotes always end up in the wrong rooms and I spend 20 minutes just figuring out what goes where (I'm going to cure that next time I'm there with my handy-dandy "take the battery cover off and put a sticker in there with the location written on it" filing system that I use for the hard TV remotes).Here's a tip I don't know if anyone else uses: on the TVs that I have Roku devices on, and use that Roku remote to operate the TV, I put a piece of velcro on the back of the TV and a piece on the back of the original TV remote, then I stick the TV remote to the back of the TV (in a spot that's not obvious unless you are looking).

The time it takes for a zoning variance, the money to dig out the basement and the level of risk for what seems like might be your first project is a lot.