The parameters I'm looking at are:Safety: A relatively safe neighborhood where I can trust getting rent and having my renovation project completed.Cash-flow: A sustainable investment where there's a healthy balance between houses-prices, taxes, and rental income.Budget: A good entry-level of about 500k tops for house values (I've seen quite a lot of those in Oakland).I'm looking to start on the right foot, can anyone point me in the right direction and also maybe give concrete investment examples?

It was a great overview of the STR lifestyle as well as a detail-oriented 'how-to' in a lot of areas. 

You can do an internet search and quickly find out if a city is healthy or not.Once you find a few cities you are interested in, look for quality property managers.

This was in a more active, healthy area, and lots of the vacant houses were about ready to go on the market, or had been sold but weren't showing in the tax records yet.

When you reconcile, the surplus can be left in the budget for upcoming months (winter) or applied towards the following month's rent.We also provide our student tenants with additional services aimed at their lifestyle.  

You’d be much better off learning how to modify your lifestyle and priorities to accommodate your preferences and do things that are meaningful.

For many, it's not a HUGE difference in lifestyle but it's worth considering. 

Then when you are bringing in 100,000,150,000 a year or more etc. you can up your lifestyle of living within a comfortable range.

I cannot relate to that mindset as I have always believed that I have to earn my way in society, and programs like S8 and welfare are there as temporary bandaids if I get myself into trouble, not as a lifestyle.

My blog/website is about long distance self management, landlording, investing in class A investments, investing in a transient lifestyle, etc.Look forward to seeing you around the forum.