Listening to YouTube big shots that have great advice on professional ways to handle problematic guests ( most are great but everyone will get bad apples), staying at the property when you have an open window of time and actually get the guest experience (this is critical), and looking at your click thru and conversion rates to get a good baseline.There is way more work to running an STR than a LTR.

Any cash flow in excess is gravy (on the poutine, I would guess).

I actually sold a Class C a few months ago - I saw the writing on the wall after one Class C, very likely no capital gains after all my passive losses.

Hopefully, based on actual field measurements, past project data, and estimating software, your contractor can develop a detailed estimate that lays out the cost of labor and all materials for each phase of the project.

I'm not so worried about "anonymity" because the house is our primary residence, so we're not hiding, but we want to look like we don't have excess assets.  

You'll have a property manager do the management (so you being close to it is not needed).Yes there are risks for some people to go out of state but if you learn the techniques like I have, you'll see it's actually easier and far less risky.

If they meet the requirements for a PE right the only way to actually confirm is again through the courts where a judgement is made.

You can question all you like, but if the unit isn't actually working and you do nothing, that's not cool.

But in terms of the upfront fee, this is actually common in a commercial loan.

It blows my mind that you can actually start and operate a legitimate business in the US without telling the government (not the public) the name and address of the owner.