You need (at least 40 or 50 sometimes in my case.) of individual “reasons” for income and expenses (property #1 rental income, #1 management expenses, #2 income, #2 management expense, #2 plumbing repair, #3 income, #3 management expense #3 landscaping expense #3 commission to realtor finding tenant, #4 income #4 management #4 landscaping…etc etc..) this will then either equal your deposit or have a last line that shows the amount you are out of balance where you missed an item or entered an incorrect amount.Doing this let’s you produce a report of any property’s  income or expense over any time period.

There is furniture and stuff in the way and you may miss things, plus they could do damage between when you did the inspection and they actually move out.If they are moving out at the end of the month, tell them you can do a pre move out inspection, but put it in writing that as their belongings are in the property, you may miss things.the link provided earlier for California, says you can do an initial inspection, but it is also followed up by a regular inspection after they move out. 

With regular real estate, escrows with retail buyers fall out all the time and is expected.

If both strategies produce your target results, then neither are wrong.  

,,I suppose there are some regular neighborhoods where a STR would work, but why are people coming?

You’ll also see that various potential investors will start reaching you out regarding investment opportunities once they see you posting regularly about Real Estate on your social media.

We've already agreed on rates, and I'm going to ensure all the paperwork protects me just like it would any other lender (proper contracts, personal guarantee, etc)The part I'm unsure of is what type of entity it should be under, just a regular LLC?

When I was just a regular agent, I didn't get the nuances that investors really needed. 

My wife typically meets with them and we now have a set of contractors we regularly use and trust. 

You can have debt financing within a Solo 401k but not in a Roth or regular IRA without generating UBIT.