I'm a newbie tooSelf education through books is a conversation between the author (mentor) and you.You'll gain knowledge, connections etc but it takes timeAttending meetups, listening to Youtube videos on subject matter further broadens knowledge base

Signing the lease demonstrates they agree to the terms and then you can hold them accountable.If you don't do this, then the person named on the lease and paying the rent could disappear and you would have no legal authority to charge the remaining three for unpaid rent.

Are you aware of some actual legal authority that validates the IRS opinion on this issue?

They would need authorization from their broker to do this. 

If he's being sued, it seems that the proper authorities would be looking into it.

I attend seminars, and real estate meet ups, as well as work with my local housing authority to keep up with the local tenant landlord laws. 3) We did all of our own maintenance.

In our area, the housing authority does annual inspections to (mostly making sure the landlord is keeping up the units) review the tenant and the landlord. 

This service is provided by several authorized 3rd party companies.2024 update: If you file more than 10 1099s, you MUST eFile them now.Here are some of the online 1099 filing companies, and you can easily find others:tax1099.comWageFiling.com1099online.comThese companies charge under $5 per form.

The tourism authority has had some good information in the past about how many visitors come to each island and, of those visitors, how many book STRs.

To just make money is not enough.Michael Gerber, author of the E-Myth  said it best in an interview.