Sold my home in Longmont the first weekend it was on the market.

It's more marketing and sales than REI anyways.  

I personally started my real estate investing journey by house hacking, where I bought my first primary residence and rented out a room, which helped pay for half the mortgage.

You should be using a servicer and not paying directly to the owner.Plenty of things to check on. 

Quote from @Andrew Steffens: As a Property Manager I prefer when people use licensed and insured property managers :)I offer a full service option for owners that do not want to do any part of the management as well as a limited service option that includes 24/7 guest communication, revenue management, automations, and marketing on 15 channels that would be akin to co-hosting.If you've got someone like Andrew offering a "skinny" management plan, that's the best of both worlds.

yes, you might pay more to house hack than to rent a cheap place, but the idea is that you're offsetting that with the rental income and building equity. 

For years they made bank as a pioneer in the STR market.

I see many BP investors flocking to popular markets like Dallas, Miami, Houston, Tampa-St.

Say you didn't know that work needed permits and pay the extra costs (in time and work) to get it permitted. 

Tenant Default: 0-5% probability of eviction or early lease termination.Section 8: Class A rents are too high and won’t be approved.Vacancies: 5-10%, depending on market conditions.Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, 3-5 years for positive cashflow, but you get highest relative rent & value appreciation.Class B Properties:Tenant Pool: Majority of FICO scores 620-680, some blemishes, no convictions/evictions in last 5 years.Tenant Default: 5-10% probability of eviction or early lease termination.Vacancies: 10-15%, depending on market conditions.Cashflow vs Appreciation: Typically, 1-3 years for positive cashflow, balanced amounts of relative rent & value appreciation.Section 8: Class B rents are usually too high for the Section 8 program.Class C Properties:Tenant Pool: Majority of FICO scores 560-620, many blemishes, but should have no convictions/evictions in last 3 years.