Some areas have a lot of regulatory bias against STRs.

While any one of those could crash at any time (well not the government/universities hah)  it is hard to imagine a scenario where they all do at once.I am biased as a born and raised Raleigh citizen, but there is a reason everyone moves here and never leaves (I-95 must be a one way road for moving trucks...who knew?) 

Yes, it's biased but I'm allowed that as a consumer.

In full disclosure, I'm a bit biased because I'm working with him.

@Mark Vejnar Hello Mark, As I have, You have connected with the best non-bias REI sight in existance In the upper right hand corner of the home page is a search box - type in any topic of interest & you will find past posts & opinions I hope you enjoy & learn as much as I have from this site Mark G

Bank statements as-income-documentation will also be tough, since these programs tend to like steady income, not income that comes in fits and starts (eg, flips)... many alt-doc lenders even specifically exclude income from real estate activities from being considered (this isn't a protected class like gender/race/familial status/etc). 

I know you can't help but be biased, but in your opinion, would a broker be a good option for me?

Most answers to questions like this in other threads will come from TK providers and others who sell or refer to TK providers, thus they are bias opinions so keep that in mind.You may get better answers to your questions by searching for other threads like this and reading up on responses taking close notice to who is posting the answer and what possible benefit they may be hoping to obtain by making their post.

It's difficult to have a discussion with him and learn so I'm primarily looking for someone or some firm that is strongly biased towards real estate that I could bounce questions off of for proactive tax planning.

RV & Mobile Home Parks are my niche so I'm biased in this area.