Please understand that Qualified Intermediaries, in general, are not licensed, regulated or required to be insured or bonded and have no minimum equity capitalization requirements.We recommend that you consider the following risk criteria prior to selecting a Qualified Intermediary:(1) The technical expertise and experience of the Qualified Intermediary(2) The level of protection provided by the Qualified Intermediary's errors and omissions insurance coverage, which protects you against possible mistakes made by the Qualiied Intermediary(3) The level of protection provided by the Qualified Intermediary's Fidelity bond coverage, which protects you from potential theft or embezzlement of your 1031 Exchange funds by the Qualiied Intermediary(4) The practice of using Qualified Trust Accounts or Qualified Escrow Accounts to ensure that your 1031 Exchange funds are protected by law as fiduciary funds(5) The protections provided through licensing, auditing, and regulatory oversight by regulatory authorities I hope this helps, and if you have any questions please feel free to give me a call or pm. 

There is a nice place in roseville that I would have liked to check out but the landlord had very strict guide lines and never let us in the house.

I have bailed many of them out over the years when some guru gave them a model that turned out to get them in deep kimchee with regulators.

Any idea on how strict CT is with regulating these (permits, etc) or any other advice/lessons in this area?

With STR you can get better ROI the LTR, but a lot of the popular vacation areas have strict STR rules witch in turn is making the STR properties worth more.

cash for keys can still be valid but if you talk to a lawyer it is a different story if they just received notice to vacate and was no court action before.And you are in CAlifornia so lots of tenant regulation to comply with.

It can happen at any time (literally, we've been waken up at 1AM due to frozen /  pipes that have burst)I only mention that so you know, which you probably do-- overall, if you love the outdoors and people, and don't mind regulating and being there all the time, you should really enjoy it (assuming it makes you enough money to live) and meet some great characters! 

In the 1970s, HUD published regulations discussing what constitutes FHA discrimination.

While government regulations can change, knowing what's in the news right now could save you both time and trouble down the road.Best of luck on getting your first STR up and running!

The burden of proving you have followed the regulations precisely falls on you.