Am hosting on the barrier island of central Florida.

I have my "regular" local bank lender here, we have done previous cash-out refinances, construction loans, 85% LTV investment loans, you name it.However, when I went to speak to my lender about this deal, they weren't keen on the idea of me having no "skin in the game."  

Depends on location, i might have a STR “Professional co-host”.

Your 1031 Exchange fails if you are not able to acquire any of the properties that you identified during your 45 calendar day identification period and you would pay the capital gain and depreciation recapture taxes that would have paid as if it was a regular sale. 

He is probably self managing and vacancy/CAPEX are not regular "hard" expenses, so they are often overlooked. 

I've been all over (married to a military service member for a couple of decades), so it changes frequently ;)  Make sure to register for some of the free weekly webinars that Brandon usually hosts. 

My team manages 200 and own 17 regulars, 2 Airbnb/corporate.

Another option might be reaching out to Airbnb hosts to see if someone would rent monthly for 8-12 months for a reasonable rate, until you can get your record sealed.

Does anyone here use Costar regularly and have had success using LARA lists?

Brandon runs podcasts here too.Join an REI group and go mingle with folks there.You absolutely have to make sure the tenants are paying rent regularly and you have to see that unit too.