The local government had my contractor create some basic drawings of the work, had me pay the permit fee and pay for an inspection. 

It will not be fun.All this said, I know nothing of the other types of real estate in the sector.

Quote from @Jason Malabute:  I really hope they figure out a way to extend this in the future because it’s a huge benefit for real estate investors like us.This is not how the government works though :) 

However, the rapid rise of the technology sector in the Reston area has sparked them to double down on their bets for continued strength of the office market in Reston Town Center (the D.C. metro area has the 3rd highest density of tech talent in the United States and 9th in the world, especially markets in the Dulles Toll Road Corridor like Reston, where 70% of the worlds internet traffic flows through and is home to companies like Google, Oracle, and Microsoft).

They are essentially risk free, as they are government bonds.

STRs also make for a convenient scapegoat for the government when they need to divert attention away from their own policies that make adding more housing units more expensive/time consuming. 

MFH carries all of the emotional issues and local governance that tends to favor tenants over landlords because you're dealing with "people's homes", not an investment property.

Most halfway houses and similar stay solvent through donations, government grants and insurance billing.

A unit of government?

Undocumented immigrants often won't have any government issued IDs so it is a defacto fail.