He does this in extremely busy cities where flights get delayed and people suddenly need a place to stay, and often check Facebook for recommendations. 

Where are you looking to invest and do you have a specific buy-box?

We want to buy her sister out of the property, but don’t know where to begin because we’ve only bought 3 properties in Pennsylvania through a realtor. 

These properties are my children's college education, I acquired them in 2005, only 1 loan no 2nd, never refinanced since purchased, but I am in a dire situation, any advice on where I can get the help I need to save these 2 houses, they both have equity... 

Deals where you are dealing directly with a private party.

Crested Butte where you can STR fairly easy vs. the town of Crested Butte where it is difficult to STR

The plan is to create an Excel sheet where I could plug the basics into a formula and it would give me a side-by-side view of how the investment looks with each fund option. 

If it is not seasoned someone may ask where did they fifty come from all you have to say is: "this is money I have saved for the purposes of investing in real estate" that's the textbook answer that no lender will ever question. 

Just made an account here to try and organize my thoughts as I don't know where to begin.

Personally, I like the all-in-one units but they are expensive and poorly suited for larger units where it will take forever to get a load of laundry done (since you can't move the clothes from the washer to the dryer).