It is not walking distance to much but a short drive to a lot and generally a touristy area. 

I’ll try to keep this as short as possible but I am at a cross road in life here and can’t seem to find the guidance I need. 

Yeah the law changed I believe back in 2020.You cannot do short term rental with an HPR unless you own both sides.   

Create a short presentation that outlines your process and risk mitigation strategies.

But neither do you, yet you started with:"Short answer is "yes"  - which I consider misleading.And you manipulated the OP's question to fit your agenda.

Nonetheless, you can base the DSCR calculation on PadSplit rent (if there's a history of PadSplit income being produced) or short-mid-term market rent (an analysis done at the same time of appraisal).

To make a long story short, for one property you are not going to save $ in the long run and realize materials can take 6-16 weeks to arrive. 

@Chris SeveneyI think those that took short term debt, trying to extend their terms, and now that the 10 yr has shot up, it's gonna be very interesting.

@Shayan SameerThe non-paying tenant could impact your short-term cash flow, so consider the potential costs and timeline of eviction in your state.

Very simple - tell them to call me if they can't figure it out.I would not tell the tenant what I was doing and if it was ever discovered that I had done it - I would explain that I did it as a standard safeguarding of my property - in case the original thermostat should ever fail while no one was there to monitor the space temperature - the backup thermostat would save us all from freezing damage.