Seems pretty painless, pay a fee, get inspected and keep renting STR.

See if you can get a copy of The Millionnaire Real Estate Investor by Keller.The Slight Edge and Atomic Habits too.Awesome board with many smart people having own suggestions and ideas to grow wealth!!

But as I've read more about the process, including a BP published book by Brian Green 'Long Distance Investing', I'm wondering if not only is a RE agent not needed for me, but is likely to work against my favor.Why? 

Hey everyone, been looking into REI for quite a while and am getting more serious.

I will say, with furnished rentals, it takes time and money to fully furnish them with all the bells and whistles but it did allow me to get higher rents... only downside is, if you are out of state, it is not easy to manage remote unless you have a good property manager/company.I have personally started to transition out of STRs due to zoning/town regulations and have already unfurnished one of the apartments to turn it into a long rental for more stable residual income.

- Should I get a real estate agent or realtor estate lawyer to help me with paperwork that because I have no clue when it comes down to contracts/documents regarding sales/purchases. 

Here in Idaho, there are many lake front homes that get their water directly from the lake.

Get a deposit.Yes offer a discount.You should be fine if you do these.

He wasn't giving into the state and local governments mandate for employees to be forced to wear masks, get vaccines, etc and he started getting "threats" saying that he could be taken to court and have assets seized if he continues "breaking the emergency laws" during covid time.That could be viewed as an extreme example, but things like this worry me as I have my own company and employees.

Unfortunately, it was an intentional fire set by a tenant getting evicted.