Consider markets like King's Mountain and Jacksonville, which offer the potential for appreciation and rental demand.

Does anyone know if Short Term Rental laws for landlords in Arlington County, Va are passed on to tenants?

Here are the numbers, so you can see what I mean.The numbers are the following: 359,900.00 sales price (purchased Dec 2015) 89,975.00 down payment (25%) 10,000.00 closing cost (estimate - I don’t remember the exact figure) 7,000.00 required rehab (estimate - I don’t remember the exact figure) 106,975.00 Cash invested 3,900.00 Rental Income (actual figures) 150.00 Parking Income (actual figures) 4,050.00 Total Inflows (400.00) Utilities (250.00) repair budget (not an actual outflow, yet) (2,200.00) Mortgage (Includes insurance, taxes, and P&I) 1,200.00 Operating Inflows 14,400.00 Yearly inflow 13.46% ROI If I were to use the 50% rule I would have discarded the property. 

The owner of that property, if it is to be a rental, can manage their own property and don't need any license to do so. 

My short term goal is to buy our first property to turn into a rental by the end of the year.

I have been in the short term rental space for quite some time now.

They are short term rentals @Marie Grabo. :) I would take some time and check AirBNB and VRBO directly and see what others are charging nightly, what their amenities are and what their calendars look like.You can compare that with the AirDNA results and get a better idea.

Alternatively, we could do longer rentals and have my wife achieve REP status.

Does it have it's own entrance or will they have to go through your home to get to their rental?

I had seriously been considering purchasing the CI DEAL DOG package due to its 'simplicity'.