I live in Phx,az and recently friend of mine sold his bank (ex bank of america) literally as is and profiteed $300k  , he purchased it right out cash last year (I think) and it was in real bad shape in a shady part of town,  before him taking possession of the bank  homeless people where living inside it an using the bathroom anywhere in the building, he put maybe less than $5k in just cleaning it up and just a couple of days sold it.Basically the idea is to find super cheap homes in ****** conditions but the price is so cheap that you could still make profit by selling as is, investing as little as possible..

People make money in different ways in real estate.

When the city comes after people, they go to the owner.

Most people will not qualify for this, Fannie multifamily is simply not an option for someone new to this asset class.Bank - This is a Texas headquartered bank. 25 year amortization isn't the sexiest, but that's a human-attainable interest rate with very modest points/fees, with a short prepayment penalty.

So 30k in interest payments on a primary would only net most people an $800 tax deduction since they would have already got the standard deduction by default, where as 30k in rental interest would translate into 30k in deductions.This means that for an awful lot of people, they effectively don't get to deduct the interest on their primary.Keeping the loan on your rentals, while getting rid of the loan on your primary also helps from an asset protection side of things. 

These could lead to issues with zoning, future appraisals, and insurance.

I am trying to figure out if people generally run these are sole proprietorships or through an LLC.

I've heard horror stories that it's usually impossible due to the "burden placed on the municipality" but could really never understand what that burden was... most people living in those units wouldn't be using the school systems so aside from maybe an increased volume in emergency medical situations I can not understand that statement? 

Very knowledgeable in very forum and super friendly people.

There's a number of people that teach/coach how to start and run a STR company...Tony and Sara RobinsonMicheal Sjogren Rob AbasoloMicheal ElefanteAnd others depending on what fits your goals.