You CAN limit that agreement to a specific property; but, as others have stated, agents are looking for a certain amount of loyalty from their clients.If an agent gets vibes from a prospective client that indicates that they want to cheapskate and not pay a professional for their service, they are not likely to waste their time with them.

Absolutely no amount of due diligence on my part in 2017 would have revealed the negative effect of COVID on the industry.

Any profit you can make from STR will help with the mortgage, but it's a bad idea to count on the STR to make a certain amount of money if that's the only way you can afford the house. 

If I could deploy the same amount of up front cost to purchase an up and running portfolio.My calculations tell me that I can be cash flowing much more if I spend the money on a portfolio or complex.

I dont want to get a loan for more than the true sales value of the property but I would like to get atleast the normal amount back for the money I have put into it. 

This is platform for professionals and novice investors and you will learn a lot of valuable, hard-earned lessons in a short amount of time.

There are a good amount of investors on here who could take down (including myself) a portfolio of rentals 

Typically seasoning means that the funds have been in a bank account for a set amount of time (usually 60 days), so ANY lender should love that....I thought maybe you meant un-seasoned funds?

Major employers like JP Morgan and AT&T are pushing for these policies as well, and specifically in the D.C. region, Amazon HQ2, the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority, and the Executive Branch of the government have required all employees to return to work 5 days a week at those locations.Fundamental Lack of Residential SupplyAnother interesting driver of demand is the fundamental lack of supply of housing stock due to the fallout effects of the 2008 housing crisis, slowdowns in housing construction during Covid-19 primarily in 2020, and a good amount of 2021 from supply chain issues, labor shortages, and rising construction costs.

Get a roll away dumpster too- the amount of packaging waste the setup generates is staggering!