The insurance paid out, but the work to mitigate was never done.

REI is risky and the way you mitigate that risk is with expertise and money.

The biggest risk in STR is already mitigated in your case with zoning exclusion. 

Welcome @Tea Russell , one of the best opportunities for someone like yourself just getting started is to mitigate your living expenses by house hacking a property in the DMV.  

The rent doe the duration of this Lease is hereby reserved to the Landlord (This means that if Tenat leaves before the stated duration  of this Lease, or is evicted, the tenant shall remain liable for the balance of the rent, subject to landlord's obligation to use reasonable efforts to mitigate any loss).We do not plan to leave the appt before the end of the lease, however, as we know, life happens.

What am I doing to mitigate greater risk?

A few minutes of full force water meant I required water mitigation and new flooring, but M&S covered all those costs and let me choose whatever flooring I wanted.

Here's why:Let's say I sign a tenant to a one-year lease, and 3 months in, their personal/professional situation changes, and they break their lease and move out after a 30-day notice (or maybe less).I am required, by law in most areas, to "mitigate my loss" by remarketing the unit, making it rent-ready, and starting up my lead generation machine to get applicants, funnel them into my screening system, identifying good candidates and ultimately leasing them up.

If a seller can mitigate hoops and additional uncertainty they usually will.

Yes, risky but you mitigate that by educating yourself and limiting your risk and, if you do it right, you're rewarded with a good return.