I personally believe that a better way to jump into mid term rentals is to take a course on buidling a property management company or cohosting business where you bring your skillset to the table without the intial investment into all the furniture and leases.

A contract is only as good as the person enforcing it.

Any recommendations on Houston REI groups that meet in person or virtually?

If the IRS has a Form 1098, they assume that the person listed on the form made the payments, and they move on. 

Curious how this will play out in the courts (granted it's LTR) and affect pricing products used for STR such as PriceLabs (which I use but have to seriously manually adjust for very specific reasons).

Be that person who set's up some STR's there, runs em there, and really caters it to the US "bucket list" tourist. 

Be prepared to follow up multiple times, using different forms of communication—calls, emails, and if possible, in-person visits to their office.

In addition, you want a separate bank account for the rental property to separate it from your personal accounts.

I am here to create a business strategy that protects personal and business investments and mitigates risk,  procure a coach or mentor, and set up tax strategies to create long-term wealth for myself and my family. 

And what if the one person you didn't check has a criminal background, has collections, and more?