I have some incredibly bright friends that work for pretigious accounting firms currently, but I don't know 1) if I want to hinge very good friendships on business, & 2) if that would put them in a conflict of interest situation of some sort.

This isn't a friendship with the tenant, it's a business.

My cash investment isn't a tremendous amount of money, but I do want to be sure friendship and cash is protected should anything go sideways.My investment would be 5K to be delivered at closing Monday Nov 30, 2015.

Here are my thoughts on each of your points.1) Great reason, it's always good to help a friend even if it's never paid back2) This isn't always valid, but I can't speak for your friendship obviously, I just know that it always gets difficult when money and stress are involved.3) Great property management experience for self-managing your own properties which I think everyone is capable of doing.4) Great reason, although it doesn't always happen.

Plus you have the possible end of life of friendships and estrangement of relatives to think about.

IF more people use long term furnished rentals as a primary housing solution, THEN people don't have the traditional "Community" anchored in neighborhood friendships, therefore the furnished rentals that have multiple units or shared common spaces where interaction with other "digital nomads" / "slow vacationers" will be able to get a premium price.  3.

I am fairly new to real estate butt I hope to create a financial future for my family as well as building future friendships and business partners .

They can be investors but friendship is important to me too. thanks for reading all! 

I appreciate each and every one of you and I can't wait to meet many of you to forge many friendships.

Protect the friendship first and foremost.As far as the structure goes, I would do it the same way you would do it with a stranger.