I am very involved in our local real estate investor association and agree that in this central Florida market there are an over saturation of STRs as well.

Yes you can get in without "military" involvement. 

I will always take a deposit unless I know the people involved. 

While the traditional approach involves buying a multi family property, living in one unit and renting out the other - with rising prices and interest rates; others have considered renting out bedrooms as unit spaces. 

We have several subcontractors that handle the process but the owner has zero involvement.

In that case you should get an attorney involved as encroachment would be a material issue that if known should have been disclosed both to the broker and to any potential buyer.  

Was he really involved in your deals?

Is there some other way to verify his involvement? 

The Economic Development there is focused on building competitive regional talent, diversifying the regional economy, transforming Montgomery's image and building diverse community capacity.Major economic drivers to the area include Hyundai manufacturing, Maxwell & Gunter Air Force Base, major Amazon distribution, Alabama State Capitol, Alfa Insurance, Kinpak, H2 Pharma, Dollar General transport/logistics, Dow Chemical, and Conner Industries to name a few. 

Keep in mind magistrates deal with MANY MANY cases involving small issues so their rulings OFTEN may not follow the correct technical application of the law.