@Michael Plaks explain what you mean that a full time W2 employee who is a professional athlete can t qualify as having pro RE designation?

Thinking there may be a market for short term rental as a farm stay in an interesting space if designed correctly and not too terribly far outside of town, but I need to educate myself on str for this specific area on the outskirts.  

My question is, being my first investment home, should I bother with hiring some kind of designer to help with the material choices/colors/styles/etc or keep with the contractor and work toward a plan and scope of work that way?

Please note the information provided below is a layman's definition designed to provide a basic understanding for the general audience.

I'm bringing the deal, which I've carefully analyzed and managing the whole process from purchasing, furnishing, designing, managing, etc (this is for a short term rental) If I didn't need them to take out the loan I would just do a pay back monthly with a 5 year balloon after cashing out equity from the house.  

their rental inspections are exterior only

Just spent $15k getting exterior of the house updated which wiped out most of my cash reserves.

Not necessarily a deal-breaker, but needs to be accounted for in extra cost)- Lathe and Plaster has pros and cons (Make sure you know them)- Insulation in modified walls (Old houses tend to have wooden expansion walls built against stone exterior walls.

A household with more than $1MM in net worth excluding their personal residenceThere are some other options and more details, but if you can check either of the items above, you are safe to call yourself an accredited investor.The more complicated designation is the Sophisticated Investor.

It was designed and built by JAS (https://jasdesignbuild.com/).