It is realistic...probably not...but even if it's probably not realistic it doesn't mean that it's not COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE. 

It seems like the purchase of my 1st and second homes were relatively easy but getting to my 3rd seems impossible.

It could be 6 weeks or 6 years before rates are significantly lower - it's impossible to know. 

If you are few thousand miles away, and want to transition from one PM to new PM just over the phone - that's really difficult.But as I said before, nothing is impossible if you are resilient enough to make things happen.

It makes evaluation difficult to impossible.

@Alexander HunterHi AlexanderYes you are correct, even though the AU market is softening some, it is still quite expensive to get in and can be difficult to find good deals - not impossible though.I invest in the US market from Australia, must admit, as a few have said on this thread, the diversity of the US market is great, and affordability and cashflow is excellent. 

-Booking.com is a very large and established company that has been around much longer than airbnb and vrboCons:-more listings to make sure are all staying maintained assuming you are also on airbnb and vrbo-you have to pay them their commission back at the end of each month which is a pain in the a** and is an unnecessary extra step-payouts can take longer as you mentioned-it has been impossible for me to find anyway to contact customer service over the phone and instead you have to refer to their forums and FAQs for any answers you need.Hope you found this helpful.

I think Lakewood is the best market in Cleveland, but I am hearing people tell me to expect rents that seem impossible there.

I was holding approximately 20 of their properties at that time, so you can imagine that unexpectedly paying out 20 interest payments every month was impossible.   

@Christopher ReynoldsIn Colorado Long Term rentals are next to impossible unless putting 25-30% down and getting a few hundred bucks or cash flowing.