Found T&H realty services to be pretty interesting as they provide both buyer brokerage service (to help me find deals) as well as do property management i.e. they are not full turnkey provider necessarily, but reduces some of the hassle for me I guess as an out of state investor. 

While you should always consult a CPA and/or attorney for their professional advice, here's my 3 cents (I'm sure others will chime in as well):1) Having an LLC may make it "easier" to track but it's not needed in this situation as you can run this through your personal return just as well.

There's currently a website set up to get information from customers that have had this contract "sleight of hand" done to them. 

There's a lot to this and illinois will not approve you without these things in place, as well as some others.Good luck.

I have a client in ATL that knows STR very well and could provide some resources if needed.

While I don't object to spending money to do one's due diligence, I don't know if $500 is called for when you can get very high quality syndication groups/meetups/information for free.

Setting them up to do well.

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MD/VA licensees are common, having a WV license as well as the other 2 isnt that common in the area.