The NIL program was put in place in 2021 after the Supreme Court ruled that college athletes could receive compensation.

My question is have any of you tried alternative methods of compensating property managers, besides the usual % of rent?

A real estate broker within the meaning of this part is a person who, for a compensation or in expectation of a compensation, regardless of the form or time of payment, does or negotiates to do one or more of the following acts for another or others:(a) Sells or offers to sell, buys or offers to buy, solicits prospective sellers or buyers of, solicits or obtains listings of, or negotiates the purchase, sale, or exchange of real property or a business opportunity.

I assume it's the former but if it's the latter the terms of compensation will be spelled out in the management agreement.I agree with @Jeff Copeland, $100-$150 is not enough.

You might be entitled to compensation if the PM did in fact not uphold their end of the agreement. 

He took money locally from individuals and only did a partial completion of home staging if anything at all and once he received the money he vanished as did the AirBnB listings for those clients, He owes me $950+ of expenses for furnishing units as well as compensation for my time, fuel, etc.. 

Sellers will sometimes push back on this as they don't know if you'll close and you are asking them to get rid of a paying tenant...if so, offer them some more due diligence (if that's part of the deal, or introduce non-refundable $) to compensate for the potential of lost rent if the tenant vacates and you don't close.

Better look too toward the Federal Trade Commission and issues with multi-layered schemes where one party or any entity benefits from transactions, they look to "who is behind the door" and how compensation is paid by consumers getting scammed. 

The compensation bit is the one I have the biggest question on as to your point, I want to have interests aligned.

So either give equity (sweat/$) or fair monetary compensation for debt investors.