You will note there is no mention above about being a good communicator. 

Working with contractors can be extremely difficult as projects get delayed and there is poor communication(red flags were not present before project began).

Quote from @Jose Laffitte: Hello All,I am fairly new to REI and taking some baby steps to do research and find lenders that will fit my needs.

Fair enough that he's not on contract for that, but it really would have been great if he could have informed me that this was a thing and that there was a deadline.

There are a lot of good resources throughout this thread an additional one I would recommend looking at are the Fair Market Rents on the HUD website.

It seems if you are far away from this property then it might be a good idea to consider hiring the services of an experienced property manager who really could provide ongoing communication during the whole stay.  

His communication is poor but he continues to advertise for his several businesses.

Asking travelers to communicate via platforms or services outside of Vrbo before accepting a booking (such as through email or text).

Perform the same task in each app to ensure a fair comparison.Load a property with pictures and details.Market that property.See what your marketing looks like from the public's perspective.Submit a fake application to see how easy the process is.Run a credit/screening report on yourself.Enter a maintenance request, assign a vendor, and attach a fake invoice.Enter charges to the tenant's ledger.Enter recurring charges and automatic late fees.Sign documents electronically.Run owner reports.After testing a few apps, one should clearly stand out.

Which is not uncommon, what is uncommon is the number of inexperienced syndicator’s Who not only lost all the investors money, but some even fail to communicate the status of this indication. .To start, understand the type of deal you want to be in.