If he has no insurance, you become the deeper pockets for anyone to sue if they are injured on the property (even if he was responsible, the claimants attorney will be looking for reasons it was your fault. 

The odds of a guest being injured on a playground installed by your tenant and then resulting in a lawsuit against you is so ridiculously rare bet it's laughable.

The most popular loan type is hard money but there are others.  

Yes @Logan Williams, as @Ryan Blackstone said, that area is popular with travel nurses and Medium-Term or month-to-month rentals.

It seems to becoming a more popular area with time.

RTO is very popular in AL, but sadly only 50% of the tenants actually can follow through since most have a renters mindset.

But let's say you were able to sell the property, get $200k in proceeds, and take that and purchase the STR that you wanted, which then produces $1500 in cash flow every month (probably conservative for a popular STR).

I used to...now that I know the area a little better, I raise the weekend rates during the busy and popular times of the year.

Upon underwriting the property which is in a popular area with current avg rent at $1000 with a possible potential up to $1400 since value-add and below market rents is being assumed in the offering.

Wy and Delaware seem to be the most popular.