I have contractor who will do all the work for me. 2- I am currently a FT employee with real estate investment as my side hassle ( 2 OOS fix and flip going on) .

In most states, the company that owns the property can hire an employee to manage the property for them without a license.

Here is my situation:- I'm a W2 employee that earns north of $500k a year- My wife is a stay-at-home-spouse- I'm looking to buy ~ $1,000,000 in STR Real Estate by the end of the year (as an investment and to offset my tax bill)I'm fairly well versed in the rules surrounding using STR to offset active income.

When have you ever had a interaction with a government employee and thought to yourself, "wow, that was a great experience."

The downside was he later hired employees which caused insurance and other issues running a business from a residential district. 

Job situation currently:Quick background, running an IT business for 3 years now, makes about 150-250k gross per year, struggle to find the right employee to help so it takes my time m-f 8-5. 

So, I would either work this through your brokerage if they do property management, OR you could become a W2 employee for the current building owners to manage their property without it impacting your license.

Also you can save a lot of money if pm has their own handyman employees and do not need to sub out all repairs. my experience is that STRs outperform LTR by enough to cover the PM fees, utilities, and additional furnishing costs but not much more.  

Do I have to pay an employee a mgmt fee (myself?)

The bankers involved got together to create it.Are the people at the Fed government employees?