@Asia Taylor the best way to automate and scale the business is to hire contractors that can handle the entire project turn key including supplying all materials etc.

Dont pay for proforma rent that the seller hasnt implemented yet

@Nick Johnson  I do not own a property in SD but I do help a friend and fellow STR owner with some of the management (automation) of his property in Mission Beach. 

The best part is the level of automation that you can experience with maintenance tracking.

There are options that can bring a certain level of automation and transparency to your rental management process if you decide to go the DIY route.

The Zestimate is an output from their automated valuation model (AVM).AVMs are great benchmarking tools and they are helpful in analyzing massive amounts of data, but an on-the-ground valuation is usually closer to reality.For some color, at Fannie Mae, we built a discount into the HAMP NPV tool for AVM because it usually overshoots value for a distressed asset. 

There are options that can bring a certain level of automation and transparency to your rental management process if you decide to go the DIY route.

Start with QuickBooks Plus where you have the ability to use the Class feature segmenting each property.For rental properties, I would go with QuickBooks Advanced as you can manage the tenants and track lease dates.What is in your bucket list for automation?

My plan is to implement the brrrr strategy and cash-out refinance once the property is rehabbed. 

I literally listened to 100's of BP podcasts while fixing this home up, and implemented everything I learned into making this deal a success.