There are definitely some solid strategies that work well here, depending on your goals.Are you leaning more toward a traditional STR, or are you open to rent-by-the-room or medium-term rental strategies?

If you don't want this loan I will take it, those are great terms right now. 

Looking for guidance on the best way to proceed going forward in terms of asset protection and how to structure all of this real estate… 

Quote from @Nithin Kumar: New to Phoenix and hearing a lot of places for rental investments but trying to figure out from the pro's around to find what are the areas that can break-even on a monthly basis and the areas that can show appreciation in the nearer term. planning to put down payment of 30% (~100k) Hi Nithin, I live in North Phoenix myself and would recommend anything around the Paradise Valley Mall area.

Quote from @Martin Jones: Hello, I'm young individual who is interested in long term buy and hold multifamily real estate.

Finally from a purely from a cash outlay prospective short term, you could rent a house with roommates and your payment would still probably be Lower than house hacking because rates are so high, over the long period 5-10 years obviously it would cheaper ti buy, hope that makes sense 

Normally the escrow agent will want mutual sign off even if its clear the contract terms indicate one party should be awarded the escrow funds.

TurnKey, Buy-and-holds, flips, or maybe long-term rentals?

I am thinking of starting with rentals, be it short term, midterm or longterm. 

As a investment property lender we saw a lot of success with flips but an even bigger jump in BRRRR success with borrowers holding as long term and short term rentals.