First,and before anything else, you must decide are you wanting to run a business or a side gig that provides a few homes to vacation to. 

Moving from SoCal to Phoenix, AZ in 2019 provides perspective on affordability (it's all relative).

And/or know of any firms that provide this sort of service?

If entities are disregarded/passthrough, you can keep up with more than 1 in a single QBO account using the location/business feature to keep track of them separately.If you want to discuss any of this further, I'm happy to answer questions and help walk you through it.Best of luck!

In our situation, if the loan gets called it doesn't seem like it would be a huge problem, as we could just pay it off and the list the property and get the equity (probably $30k to $40k after selling expenses, assuming the market hasn't dropped).Thank you in advance for any feedback anyone is able to provide on the subject of a subject-to sale with a USDA loan.Jean

Account Closed: Can you share any lender names?

Set this up by doing the math and getting the right loan so that your place nearly breaks even after a capital expenditure account is paid (for those big ticket items). 

My initial thoughts are to hire a cold caller, providing them with lists and scripts to qualify sellers.

They auto list on all major rental sites, they provide tenant screening, payments online, communication via the software, insurance, etc.

You can deduct real estate losses against W-2 income provided your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) is under $150,000.