Another example, in the western NC mountains near where I live, most people gravitate towards investing in over-saturated well known vacation areas with lots of amenities, however, there are other stunning areas in the mountains with very low prices (comparatively) that have very high occupancy because hardly anybody has an STR in available in the area.

So it would do you good to see what your total monthly pre tax pay is compared to all of your recurring monthly expenses (credit cards minimum payments, auto loan, etc).

I have found that VRBO customer service is useless, can't solve my problems and they are way more expensive (8% compared to airbnb 3%) VRBO owes me alittle over 1k in past rents and they blame the root cause that my w 9 doesn't match IRS records but no one can seem to tell me how or what field.

Usually a commercial loan is what would be needed here.The main reason it doesn't work with Conventional/VA financing is because they rely on "Sold Comparable Properties" or sometimes called "comps".  

i would search truila, zillow, fb marketplace and other websites that potential tenants find rental properties and compare the prices manually in your area.

From what I understand they do not have enough comparable sales in the surrounding area?

The cost of foreclosure is not cheap, but compared against a botched one it is cheap.

My numbers are modest - compared to others.

That said, we want to avoid tunnel vision, and want to put this out to the larger community to see what other locations you have had experiences in, and their pros/cons compared to a place like Cleveland.

They may, however, take longer to obtain financing (compared to Hard Money loans).What is the reason for looking at Hard Money... is it due to your credit score?