While it will likely give you more confidence and answer a lot of questions, I would say that talking to a seasoned investor, or even agent that works with investors, is a way better idea than spending 8K on something that you don't know too much about, especially before your first deal is done.

The umbrella is a good idea as they are usually not too expensive for the amount of coverage.Get a good STR policy.

Loving the journey so far and happy to share ideas!

Correct, the idea would be to owner-occupy one of the units (I’m looking at 2-4 unit options).

My idea to achieve this is to convert the studio into a short-term rental.I’m trying to determine if I’m forcing this deal to work by relying on the short-term rental strategy or if it’s a reasonable approach given the numbers.

This is the best way to get good at analyzing deals and will allow you to quickly have a good idea about how a deal will work.

Also I'm not opposed to doing something commercial if someone has an idea.

This will help ingrain those ideas into your brain. 

Hello Nathan,That's a good idea. 

Rather than go with a classic arcade style game that I would like, they got crazy excited at the idea of a PS5 with a game subscription.