Initially the profit was not that much higher on the STR than if it were a LTR and we had periods (including the Great Recession) were we converted back to LTR during the school year and only STR during the summer.Today the STRs are virtually 100% occupied year round and bring in significantly more than they would as LTRs. 

Just keep educating yourself, keep becoming more self reliance and the better you do at that, I guarantee you it won’t be as much as a “hinderance” as you suspect it is.

@Alf Holst strange... carpet padding is far too thick and the planks (if they're click type) will separate when walked on for any period of time.

It's no guarantee but it's a good place to start.

It's also important to keep in mind that every additional rental property you own is another potential source for legal trouble, so if you grow to a certain size(and Terrell might be approaching that size), it's almost inevitable that some tenant will get a valid reason(such as falling through a porch you didn't know was rotten) to sue you over a 10 year period.

It's no guarantee but it's a good place to start.

You will need a seasoning period. 

BTW I would only go month to month for a short period of time, say their lease is up and they would like to stay for one month before relocating.What you want to do during this period is induce them to re-lease. 

I would create between 750k to 900k of increased network and $3000 to $4500 of monthly cash flow within a 2 year period of time all while keeping 100k in the bank as reserves.

Period.