A business/way of life to continue? 

If you do 203k loan (FHA renovation loan), you can wrap the reno into the loan, but it is a bit complicated on the back end with the draws to the contactor.You are using a lot of book words that may not go together in real life so you want to start going to meetups in Des Moines and meeting other investors so you can see what they have done.

Be careful with FHA some loans will keep the PMI for the life of the loan.  

Since in Florida there's only one major insurance which is run by the state it's called Citizens they require an inspection in order to determine if they will insure you or not.And yes if the inspector gives your roof no life left this they will not insure you.

It allowed him to keep the money he was willing to use for a down payment for emergencies, which made life as a homeowner less stressful.

Other option is giving a small portion of equity and splitting profits and ongoing costs evenly, but not sure how much equity to give or how to logistically buy their equity out later on if I want to keep the STR for life.

It’s to take advantage of the 2024 bonus depreciation rules which include 60% bonus in year 1 for any life classes less than 20 years.

The lure to get the first deal can be so high that you leverage your entire life savings and beyond into a project where you don't know how to do anything.

My entire life pops up on google.

The bottom floor is a permanent STR.At this point, living on the top floor of an STR no longer fits my life and while it has been somewhat profitable depending on the month, I can no longer handle the hassle of management and would be taking a loss if I used a standard airbnb property manager.