If they can't justify with documentation the reasons, provide erratic partial information, or show an unwillingness to help then those are giant red flags.    

But essentially look for giant spaces, giant bedrooms where maybe there could be 2 instead of 1.

The industry seems to have divided itself in two: 1) The giant mega-HMLs who really have no competitive advantages except price and are absolutely killing each other racing to the bottom over rates, and 2) everyone else.I really haven’t seen anything change much.

I know a lot of the houses here were built in the early 1900's, I am not sure how many giant complexes were built back then.

In earlier post I already covered use of solar panels, you only need a few BILLION sqft of them, so maybe turn AZ, NM and NV into a giant solar farm? 

"pay us and we'll give you plans and don't bother to call us again, just ask the contractor to make it work even if you discover a giant sinkhole while you dig" type of situation], -- getting a contractor who can give me a ballpark figure on construction cost [so that I can get back to the bank] with me not having selected an architect with a firmer plan, BEFORE I choose an architect, etc etc etc! 

Design, amenities, guest services, unique features, views, sought-after locations, and overall guest experience are giant factors in the success of an STR. 

Well the uncle brought with him two giant german shepherds.

I am not a CPA, so please take this with a giant grain of salt and I would advise running your plan by a CPA before executing and they can advise and fine tune it.My understanding is that net rental income is calculated on schedule E and is considered passive income, so it will have a different (lower) tax rate than earned income.

While I've been doing research about that market I bought the AirDNA for this area and see that it, seems like there's 1-2 giants PM companies in there with loads of rentals.