Check the Facebook group "Quad Cities Real Estate Investors" I can do some more research and interview some if you'd like a broker that plays in the space all day.  

To put it into terms; I was asked to come a chair a agent training at a big-brand brokerage (KW) which was about REI.

if a brand new investor is working with a private money lender, it's almost like one party is taking advantage of the other (not saying it's intentional)

We have a few brand new construction projects in Florida.

For multifamily investments, using the LLC name is typically sufficient for legal and banking purposes, as advised by your CPA and banker.A DBA may be useful if you want a separate brand or manage multiple properties under different names, but it’s not required for most investors.

Investors buy here because of strong jobs, strong rent growth, strong appreciation and the future cash flow but honestly many of my clients are playing the long buy and hold, appreciation game.

He's playing with numbers, I reckon, and I bet there was a mortgage on the property, so his cash in was not $230k.

If you plan on building a brand or having more rentals, than 100% but if only planning this one it isn't fully necessary. 

I’m sorry I’m brand new to everything what actually is Fannie Mae?

STR I would highly recommend not to focus on as first investment: also there, my partner is a superhost and we have been managing Airbnb for years and the last year has been pretty funky: people tend to book last minute and you risk to be cash flow negative starting brand new.