Many of these buyers have 2-7 transactions buying STRs in the MLS.  95% of the time the homes come furnished. 

Are there any strategies I could use to still claim the depreciation, or any way that the transaction could be structured such that I don't lose on that tax benefit?

Their money is made on you continuing to transact in real estate, not you maximizing your own profit. 

Yes, I represented myself in this transaction as my real estate agent.

Yes, I represented myself in this transaction as my real estate agent.

If you're really not planning on representing other people and you're not going to do more than 1-2 transactions of buying and selling per year I don't think it's worth it to get your license.

As others have mentioned, the note-investing industry is too small to support numerous listing sites that can be profitable from simply transaction-based revenue.

Nobody really knows how low they'll go but I agree with predictions of 20-25%...and I wonder what Agents are doing to make up that delta in their revenue.We diversified well in advance knowing we needed to create additional streams of income, ideally by simply focusing on what we control, the size of our roster, and more effectively monetizing all of our current transactions. 

PLRs can't be cited as precedent, so you could do exactly the same thing as the other taxpayers in those PLRs and the IRS can still disqualify the 1031 Exchange and the more your transaction deviates from the PLRs the more risk you take on. 

I’m investor friendly and I only charge 2.5% for any transaction I facilitate