Are you wanting to invest in a seasonal environment or something that is consistent year round?

I am very comfortable running the financial modeling on these deals but the current environment is extremely slim on opportunities.

What remains tough is the regulatory environment.

As long as you understand how lead poisonings occur and you take steps to reduce potential lead hazards, you take a lot of the risk out of lead paint and create a safer environment for children. 

However, now we find ourselves in a very unique environment.

When a newbie starts out with saying they are looking for a mentor that person has created an environment where he subjected himself to having an unscrupulous and experienced investor take him under his arm, get him involved with real estate investing that benefits his mentor's agenda and the newbie gets ripped off.

You want a stable economic environment, and small towns may be too dependent on a single company or commodity.

Starting in this environment?

Once you have educated yourself it is then about staying up to date on market metrics, and real estate environment, and zeroing in on three forms of diversity (Sponsor, geography, and asset class) across your portfolio. 

Banks and conventional lenders can likely offer higher leverage and better terms, but are likely being very cautious in this environment, especially about an emerging and economy-dependent asset class like STRs, so reliability and certainty of close with them will be much lower