Curious about potentially investing some of our tenant security deposits in CD's.

This usually involves the lawyer doing the research to find all interested parties and giving them notification.

I'm looking at potentially moving/investing in that area

While you can potentially rent-by-room, this is a really tough configuration to do that with as 3 unrelated people seldom want to share a bathroom and if they do, they expect a pretty steep discount for it.When you mentioned rental arbitrage do you mean that you're open to someone renting it from you for the purpose of using it for arbitrage? 

Since they are solely transaction based and don't have to deal with tenants after they move in:1) Many are only interested in getting their commission and moving on2) Many think they are doing everyone a favor by working with a lease client, because they could be making so much more working on sales transactions3) Many complain about screening processes as they only see them as:---Potentially costing them their commission if their client isn't approved or finds something else during the process---Slowing down their commission payment4) NEVER allow an agent to screen a leasing prospect as they have a conflict of interest!

I don’t want to just do it and potentially commit mortgage fraud. 

You may need to hire them though.Notes can be a good investment when bought correctly or a potential nightmare when bought incorrectly.

Was also potentially looking at a STR investment property.

Most people have a pet, so no pets is going to exclude over 50% of the potential applicants.

You will need a lawyer reviewed lease.