They suggest relying on the inspection contingency instead.Is this a common practice right now, or is it specific to my area?

What is best practice?

Backup Withholding: If a contractor fails to provide a TIN or gives you an incorrect TIN, you may be required to withhold a percentage of their payment for federal taxes (known as backup withholding) and remit it to the IRS.Following these steps will ensure you are in compliance with IRS regulations and avoid potential penalties.

And STR is much more involved with high turnover rates so you’ll not only need to post the listing but know how to keep it competitive so that you maximize bookings, of course, furnishing it, keeping supplies, restocked, cleaning, maintenance, And what about consideration to any local STR rules and regulations?  

Have you gone to the state, county and/or city websites to search for any STR rules or regulations?

In the next couple of years I will look at whether the long-term appreciation approach is practical.

And your buyers agent should make it a practice to do a permit search on a buy side transaction.

I later heard but never exactly why, that the place was an absolute money pit and the buyer, who was very experienced, regretted buying it big time.It is interesting, but I ALWAYS do at least a bit of research on the prior owners and have found few "hard luck" stories, at least as far as either higher or high priced single fams go, they're by far the same story where the owner makes the financial decision to walk away, mainly due to the insane HELOC's etc they were giving out, like 125% of home's current value back in like 2006, so now they'll owe literally like $750k on a home that IF in great shape would at best fetch $500k, PLUS they trashed or semi-trashed the place, so they'd be really lucky to get $400k as is and often they may be business owners or whatever and have a relationship with a local bank who will then know "the whole story" behind the big hit they take to their credit score and not treat it nearly as harshly as the average Joe, who's practically banned from even entering the bank for years!

Given the tight deadline, financing at 65% LTV, 7.5% interest, and a 7-year term is the most practical move.

Any regulations, limitations, or potential that you have uncovered and would feel comfortable sharing about.