I would basically be paying 7% interest on that money that I put aside... but I figured that if I save that much than I would at least have some flexibility to contribute to a joint venture if I got a business partner to put most of the capital in but then I would also have a little skin in the game.

It's great to hear from people with skin in the STR game.

They would have no "skin in the game" and no equity to boot.  

For example, if I found a smoking deal, turnkey $100k property, the lender wanted some skin in the game from me and require $25k down from me, I want to be able to get that $25k back as soon as possible.

Note that I do not put a lot of time into due diligence until the "contract to hold" meeting, when they put some skin in the game.At the "contract to hold" meeting, I collect an amount equal to one month's rent.

Hi @Erik Kubec.The passive-income LLC with a solo401k cat was skinned already here.

They have more skin in the game then you do.Make sure you get clear title.

@Beth Cannon I would advise against offering a full month of rent free because you want tenants to have more skin in the game than just a deposit.

Investing out of state is absolutely feasible but should be done after getting some skin in the game.

Agents...well, agent by and large suck when it comes to running good, realistic comps that can match the sale and rental comps I can produce using free tools like my county real estate website, lovely Zillow again, Craigslist, and most importantly, my in-depth knowledge of my target area.I've met two agents in real life who can make the rain come (one of them is @Anthony Angotti) and only a handful more very obviously competent people in far-off markets here on Bigger Pockets (@Frank Wong @Mike Cumbie @Russell Brazil and maybe a couple more) The rest are, to put it plainly, a waste of skin to me and not much else for the rest of the world.I used to have an acquaintance who was a beginner agent and I felt like booting him one in the butt every time we talked.