Carrying insurance through the borrower or through Lender Placed Insurance will be your first line of defense against force majeure.  

I like the PenFed 5/5 ARM if you can qualify for it.

I would encourage you to get some education, whether it's Eddie Speed, Scott Carson, Dave Van Horn, Note Force Academy, Google University or any other company.

as you get more and more loans you will be forced into this type of loan anyhow.  

You should check with your local short term rental (STR) laws and always make sure your deals work even if those laws change and force you to do mid to long term rentals but since there are so many universities and bachelor/bachelorette parties and general tourist travel in the summer.

Shopping yourself is a waste of time unless you can not get a mortgage for some reason in which case you may be forced to deal directly with smaller local banks.

You will be welcomed with open arms and make a lot of connections from people with REAL life experience.  

I want to hold on to the property for at least a couple years though and force equity into it through upgrades while at the same time using it as an Airbnb.

It varies by jurisdiction but in my area most building code issues that were not in force when the property was originally built are not required to be remedied to get approval to renovate.

Guessing a couple of those other 9 buyers wish they'd ponied up that extra $20k.Whether it'll pay off this time remains to be seen...now the fun begins...who's ready to reposition and force some value!