We are in a position where are making 6 figures combined - and very fortunate that we do not pay for any housing expenses due to my wife's (amazing) job. 

Use lots of Amonia, Bleach, A combination sometimes of both and also lots of fabuloso, pine-sol and Mistolin.

I have always found in my career when I bring my talents and combine them with someone else who knows more than me, I may not make the money on the deal that I could if I did the whole thing myself.  

This combined with the buyers market will mean sellers will be more open to creative deals and owner financing.I suspect rent rates will stagnate near the mid to top of the market but due to demand, low income rates will continue to go up.I suspect demand for low income rental units will skyrocket as the economy slows or stalls.For me, this plays into my low income model because all of this will create higher demand for low income housing and allow me to bargain shop for value add mobile home parks to buy cheap and with cheap owner financing.But, I'm not an economist and this is just my 2 cents.

I agree that Airdna market reports and rentalizer are good to get started with, combined with hitting the ground, looking at the properties and performing dummy bookings on host sites. 

If you purchase the other unit, you still have two distinct parcel IDs, two titles, two tax bills, etc, but it sounds like (or your lender is interpreting) that you want to refinance the whole building, which I've never heard of with a conventional mortgage.You can combine the properties to own the single building with two households (one parcel, title, etc) to refinance the whole building, but then you do lose the option to sell off one unit later (though you could rent it just fine).If you are just wanting to refinance the unit you purchase in cash, I don't see why the lender would want any changes to the HOA. 

Typically you need the combination of the first and second to be 80% loan to value but some HELOCS go to 89.99% Since rates are so low I make a guess that if you added $10000 to your first the payment might remain the same or less.

Vacants, Tired Landlord, Preforclosure, Liens, Bankruptcy, high equity with various combinations. 

A residence with a combination of personal and rental use (when personal use exceeds the greater of 14 days or 10% of rental days and rental use exceeds 14 days).Prorate expense based on personal usec.

If you're attracted to STR, find a way to combine the two.