CORRECTION from above statement(s): Many Lenders will NOT require you to be a Personal Guarantor of a loan your partner gets.

I am unaware of any law in any state that requires you to have a CPA.

Mainly the panel is in the basement and it would require a ton of work and paying for labor hours + repairs. 

Let them move in with a deposit and first months rent. 

I did not know of this time log requirement for STRs, so as a newbie I am going back through emails, texts, phone logs, invoices, etc. to determine how much time I spent on everything.  

And I can recall only once that a title company released earnest money to the Buyer without requiring the mutual release - worked out in my Buyer client's favor so I didn't complain.

Required good credit, adequate reserves, full doc commercial loan with a personal guarantee.  

My experience has been that although I outline the requirements for tenancy in my properties, both brokers and PMs still send people who would qualify for most property owners but do not meet my outlined criteria; and then are SHOCKED when I reject them.  

Worst case scenario, if that doesn't work, I can simply do fertilizer applications and landscape lighting as they don't require much labor.

You would arguably be better off buying a CD at a slightly lower yield with almost no risk, time, or stress requirements.