You are a great example of a Leader leaving the ships as you move from a cozy job to Start your drive in this business.

I have some money to start with, but paying a very expensive mentor-ship will take a big chunk of my cash.

This property also has a lengthy set of covenants that go along with the purchase agreement.

The address was submitted to their red book and now shows up online as official address when I try to ship items from Amazon or similar websites.

If you want to jump ship after three years, they may require to keep your clients too.

You may be finding "a" development that has some covenant banning rental's, it's "a" development thing not a builder thing. 

I told them specific things I wanted them to order and they agreed, like specific mattress and latex toppers I use. they shipped cheaper horrid memory foam ones instead.

Batten down the hatches on your DMs because that ship will sink within one day of mentioning Columbus on here.

Looking into the STR market, i would suggest a couple things to include into your property search. 1) the STR market is very saturated here so look for something unique or offer unique amenities to your guests, this will help your property stand out 2) different set of rules for properties located within city limits vs without i.e. outside city limits doesn’t require a permit which the city is cracking down on the amount of STRs on any given street or neighborhood 3) HOA is a big deterrence as a lot of HOAs don’t want any rentals of less than 30 days so an in depth search into covenants and by laws would be doing your due diligence.

The less conservative is: operate as a finder or co-GP but with very good, conservative counsel to keep everyone in the clear.I recommend you read up on "disgorgement penalties", and make sure the sponsors that are recruiting you have done the same, before jumping into this co-GP/Finder ship.