I encourage you to do a Google search/competitive analysis to learn what others charge LOCALLY (commission and fees) before you make a decision. 25% is extremely high for the Orlando market.

It’s a bit extreme, but I follow a similar rule (about 50% over and under rather than 100%)

If anyone has a template or an example of a medium-term rental contract they could share, that would be extremely helpful.

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.

I stopped for a while to do life coaching and energy work, and then I met a guy who was a broker that wanted to get more into the development side so we teamed up with his dad, a lawyer, and started up.As things have progressed, I am now finding lots of deals, and as it turns out, the guy I am working with is not really delivering the investors like he said he could/would so I am learning that part of the process now too as most of my deals sit quietly on the sidelines.

It's a loophole, and it will eventually close, everywhere.Any property I buy going forward that I plan to hold long term I will only buy in areas that are already extremely strictly regulated for STRs. 

(If you would like to track market expectations of rate changes, the FedWatch tool from the CME Group is extremely useful.)However, yields and mortgage rates can be greatly changed by Federal Reserve actions—the real drivers are the policy press releases and press conferences (typically scheduled for the early afternoon, a couple of hours after the publication of the decision).

Be careful; the rules for qualifying for a real estate professional are extremely complex - it is an area of the tax code that many practitioners and even judges (tax court cases) have gotten wrong.

We all know the Block to Block saying but in these areas of extremely tight living conditions its not only block to block but houses to house.

Having done this over 10 years a good Christian family with both parents employed whom had just bought a house and was always extremely kind and courteous did not strike me as the ones to do this.