I've also been reading a lot of books and listening to podcasts as well.

Stessa is a great option, but Baselane is my current personal favorite, partly because it doesn't require that you use a special bank account for rent collection like Stessa does. 

My plan is to have a small but mighty real estate portfolio, much like Chad Carson's book.

Read a few books on real estate investing to learn the power of leverage.

I've only been to Texas a few times but it quickly became one of my favorite places in the US. 

It's usually weekend booking.

After a rough first year where I lost money for 8 months followed by another 4 months of learning how to self manage remotely, I had a great 13th-25th months where we have kept the placed booked, kept it profitable, and largely reinvested into the property.Here is the question though-  to buy the first property, my wife and I used a HELOC on our primary and used that for the downpayment on a new property,  for the furniture, appliances, etc, and all of the other little costs that go into getting going.  

Yes, we get bookings from relocation companies all the time.

They are one of my favorite tools. 

A friend of mine had a client who successfully partnered with a regional claims adjuster, and it brought consistent bookings for months.2.