@Kevin Lefeuvre - I would argue that one of the biggest misconceptions about Short Term Rentals is that they need to be in some super hot vacation destination.

That's the biggest hurdle I'm experiencing in my planning for my future cash flow properties.

This is in Small to Mid-sized markets, not the biggest cities in the nation.

I've estimated around 45K for a rehab.Fixed Costs (realtor, closing, staging) = $19,200Desired Profit = $40,000Rehab Costs = $45,000MPP (max purchase price) = $75,800.As far as financing, I feel like this is going to be my biggest hurdle.  

I don't have to be smart enough to spot them ahead of time, I just have to be smart enough to spot them and profit from them AFTER they crash (if they do), and then smart enough to mitigate my downside risks.

That small likelihood is my biggest fear though! 

What is the downside of adding a phone number and an email to the BP profile?

Getting my place "turned over" between guests is my biggest hassle/cost with more than one unscheduled day off to run out and back.

One of the biggest benefits of doing the lease option is that the tenants will be responsible for all utilities and maintenance.

Your parents can gift these funds to you after closing and it can go against their annual gift exemption of $14,000 per year with the remainder to apply to their lifetime exclusion of 5.49M in 2017.The only downside to this is that your property tax will be reassessed at the 650k or whichever price your parents agree to sell the home to you at.At an average of 1.25% of 650,000 in CA state, this would mean about $8125 annual property taxes or about $ $677.08 per month.