Sounds like your bank simply wants your personal guarantee with your name on the loan and not that of your LLC.

I'm also going to create a drip campaign that regularly updates the agent and the client, reminding them how much I appreciate the referral and reminding them of my guarantees.

This allows for a month to month- while it’s not going to pull in your normal Airbnb daily rate, it will be (typically) double long term rent rates, & it guarantees the space being booked for a few months in slow travel times. 

Putting off another year to save up and then purchase another will likely only guarantee that the new property will cost more then than it does now.

PLEASE NOTE: For purposes of determining the VA guaranty, lenders are instructed to reference only the One-Unit Limit column in the FHFA Table “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Maximum Loan Limits for Mortgages Acquired in Calendar year 2016 and Originated after 10/1/2011 or before 7/1/2007”.Maximum Guaranty Loan Limits for February 28, 2014 to December 31, 2014 Maximum Guaranty Loan Limits for January 1, 2014 to February 27, 2014 2013 Loan Limits Maximum Guaranty Limits for August 6, 2012 to December 31, 2012 Maximum Guaranty Limits for January 1, 2012 to August 5, 2012 Maximum Guaranty Limits - October 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011 2011 Loan Limits 2010 Loan Limits 2009 Loan Limits 2008 Loan Limits Guaranty Calculation Examples - Review these common situations to see how a VA-guaranteed loan limit is calculatedRemaining EntitlementVeterans who had a VA loan before may still have "remaining entitlement" to use for another VA loan.

If you want to purchase another home without fulfilling these criteria, VA will only guarantee your total outstanding loan amount up to the county loan limit of the home you wish to purchase next.There may be other restrictions such as how many you can have or how many in a single city.

Personal Guarantee, collateraliz other assets, do military owners.

It's no guarantee but it's a good place to start.

I definitely don't like the idea of putting $10k up front for a program that is not guaranteed to work.

I guarantee you'll learn a lot from this platform.