When conducting research on Tucson as an investor from out of state, pay attention to certain industries that are driving job development, local market statistics, property managers' insights, and online investment forums to obtain a deeper understanding than just surface-level facts.

But I would love multiple feedback, constructive criticism, and differing opinions.

Our property manager aims for getting the work-from-homers, traveling nurses, etc vs going after the vacationers and it's doing well to the point of we don't get to use it as much as we would like!

do some odd jobs--plenty of contractors are looking for help...start a lawn care business (extremely popular right now), work for a company that's involved with real estate such as a property manager, title company or hard money company (F-Street is often hiring) or a real estate investment company? 

I'm a licensed agent in both markets, licensed general contractor in columbus and soon to be miami, I travel to capital markets and the highest interest is in ground up construction and purchasing of entitled sites. 1 million is light for downtown but you can get 8-12 story sites for that that you can put high density on. phenomenal opportunities. best market in the country. you can sweat equity by doing the zoning meetings, helping on design, etc.

Maybe you could contact a local STR management company and work for them for free to get some idea of what is to manage a STR.

If you are scared of losing everything and that everything is the 16k entry plus closing costs, it's not worth it on subject-to which has to be done correct and requires a lot of management to make sure their loan does not get called.

Local Property managers and realtors are a wealth of knowledge. 

Okay, four examples from the past three months of homes/condos me or clients have purchased that are in zones where vacation rentals are legal:  Unit 1:  2 bed/1 bath purchased for $225k, currently finishing up construction to update and make it a 3/2 bath that will sleep 8-10 people. 

Manager said when they replace unit they replace flue because shape on new ones is different and/or Dept of Bldg and Safety require it.