I would say your best bets is a gym as a tenant amenity or a community room that tenants can rent for family functions, parties, etc. 

That you state in your finder's fee contract with the owner that your sole function is Only introducing the buyer or investor to him/her.

You only roll over the 2mm, take a 500k cash out and then claim the 500k sec 121 exemption.You can think of it like taking the 500k off the top, then the remainder functions as a normal 1031 exchange would.

I am not sure I've ever seen where the tax writeoffs are different for STRs than they are for MTR's or LTR's in terms of writing losses off against your regular income. 

I'm in the Reno, NV area and while it's not a high fire risk in many areas insurance companies are looking very closely at the mechanicals of buildings before insuring properties or before writing a policy.

If your ponder writing reflect significantly better cash flow than the 50% rule, be sure you can explain the discrepancy.good luck 

The handle writing the new deed and transferring as well for like $400 or something.

I spent the most time customizing the messages (I use 95% of what they write, just add/tweak a bit to make them my own). 

If so, I'm assuming you write a check directly to the wholesaler and they are out of the transaction?

I started by going through the posts here using the search function and then trying to connect with the realtors and investors and whole salers and lenders specific to the city I am interested in!!