It's possible the engineer is agreeing to take on the ENTIRE development process and manage the entire development of the project but that would need to be clearly defined in the roles and responsibilities of the development partnership. 

Even with the manager, in mine, I'm thinking about and doing more in the STR than they ones I actively manage.

Regarding your second question, are you asking if those activities help meet the IRS material participation tests or qualify you as a real estate professional?

Occupancy can be off the charts in places like this because there is so much activity or reasons for people to visit during what would be slow days of the week and off season months. 

We have to get active and vote these lawmakers out https://myemail.constantcontac...https://www.aacsc.org/As a Result of COVID-19, AB 1436 (Chiu) Is Introduced.Tenants May Be Authorized To Indefinitely Stop Paying Rent♦♦♦♦♦♦Please call our Senators (listed below) and urge them to VOTE NO !

I know this may not seem possible, and probably not the answer you were looking for, but it would be worth partnering with another active investor, bringing in a passive investor(s), or even waiting until you have enough capital to deploy into the right deal. 

I wanted to briefly re-introduce myself (I’m committing to get more active in BP again!) 

Red Stick has an active FB group

I do know, however, that they are pretty strict about the STR activity in the area. 

My total expense ratio on each property I own ranges anywhere from 40%-50% annually, but I also self-manage and am not a slumlord (I am pro-active with maintenance, not reactive).