Specifically I  (with my husband and business partner and two little girls)  am on the path to early retirement through my business and interested in the buy and hold strategyIt kind of feels like a needle in a hay stack to me right now - as I am not familiar with areas etcI would love to know about challenges others may have had trying to do this, tips We are happy to come over and do some boots on the ground searching, living in areas etc as opposed to buying sight unseen, but obviously flipping etc is not on the cards for us. 

I just can't wrap my head around how a person does such things. 14 yr young little girls.......

Nobody ever went broke over a duplex, I know this now,  but I have to admit I had some serious doubts about this when I started 16 years ago, I bought every course I could find, already on CD's, this was post cassette tapes lol, and I paid RichDad Education for a one year coaching program (turned out my coach was a girl in a call center without any actual experience). 

I was just gonna say, if you look at baby boomers, those who were in blue areas are probably going to be able to retire more comfortably than those who were in red areas. 

They have 1 young girl running the entire community of Western Way.

Back about 40 years ago when gurus, mentorship’s, etc. was in its baby stages there was a guy going around being promoted as the epitome of real estate success now intent on “giving back” by sharing his experience and wisdom through high priced seminars, workshops, mentorship’s, “books and tapes”, etc.  

-Highlight fast Wi-Fi, dedicated workspaces, and amenities like coffee makers, baby items or smart TVs for business travelers, You can also offer early check-in or late check-out options to accommodate varying work schedules.

I think novice operators are trying go too heavy on amenities to compete with the big boys/girls/people and they can't do it as well because they don't have the operational experience.Consistency is the key for new operators and that goes for quarterly photo updates, dynamic pricing, and communication.Too many people got into the space in the past three years who thought of STRs as passive income when that is just silly.

My wife feel's bad for the tenant because he has a newborn baby in the home.

Is it worth waiting for a rent that I want, or just get this baby rented and raise the rent next year.