I am debating between house hacking in the Bay Area for my first property or buying my first property out of state with the help of a property management company.

Quote from @Michael Lynch: People rarely talk about the amount of effort involved in operating a STR.Never sell a property unless you have a clear plan to reinvest the money into something that will perform better or move you closer to your goals.

I'd love to do it scared and take a risk with a small property to get my feet wet and build my confidence.

Hi, I just want to understand if I bought a property (quad) and received rent while I started the capital improvements .. can I deduct the expenses of the rehab still?

you just want a plain, vanilla long term rental managed by a professional property manager.

I am a single mom but have been working hard to become familiar with this new world, and my long-term goal is to buy more rental properties over the next 10 years.

For investment property, I would say commonly you are going to have 80% to 75% LTV. 

I’ve been looking at data on rental properties in Destin and Panama City Beach, and certain amenities seem to drive higher booking rates.

We use data from Airdna as well as Airbtics, MLS data for tax savings and property info, and also long term rental comps data. 

It would be helpful to know if you are talking about turn-key properties, or value-add properties.