Another struggle i have with STR is replacing small items continually which ties back to pricing.

The best place to start is with a spreadsheet that has every every cost itemized. 

We have 8 business entities availing of their services, and as "advisors", they should make business life easier -- not add more work on your plate --- but instead, my team and I have been checking for mistakes, or following up on action items, missed deadlines, and paying penalties to the IRS and Secretaries of State due to their negligence.

There's other items such as this where it may be helpful to talk to a CPA/EA for a little tax planning, especially since you'll likely get caught up in the passive activity loss limitations if taking bonus on a single rental property as I often see.It's also useful to mention that even if you do the cost seg study (I'm assuming you're doing one to be talking about this), you'll still benefit from accelerated depreciation in the form of shorter useful lives on the assets where you received bonus from.

(I plan to move to Florida in a few years after my military service which will be up in 2 1/2 years, but i also want to gain my license in Florida).

Mine may be different though because I am still responsible for HVAC and many other large items on the property.

The biggest problem I see is that most of those items should have been itemized from the tenant deposit.

@Greg ReeseMost small investors will benefit by having the LLC created in the state where the property is located at.Creating an LLC in a state like Nevada, Delaware, Wyoming may be better for the big players if items such as charging orders, business friendly case law, anonymity are important to you.However, be mindful that setting up LLC's in those states will add to your costs as you may have increased annual fees for annual LLC fees + registered agent fees.

Gifting equity in a house may be more trouble than it is worth if you are not near the life-time exclusion1) Potentially having to get the property appraised everytime an equity is gifted2) Having a title company update the title every time3) Exemption of the gift tax return is normally for cash gifts below the annual gift tax exclusion, you may still need to file if you gift non-cash4) If there is partial ownership over several years, having to properly pro-rate certain items such as real estate taxes, mortgage interest and rental income if the property is a rentalBest of luck 

The poster was asking about broken/damaged household items and guests destroying a rental.