No one is going to steal your special plans and build something with it.

When you say commercial STR policy do you mean something like Proper or a STR owned by an LLC?

To those who send low offers in strong investor markets; are you successful against the masses and if so, is it just a numbers game, or am I missing something?

Or is there literally a visible cost the guest sees called "cleaning fee" or something similar?

Something neutral and hard wearing. 

Days on market are less as well which shows me that demand is still very much there.With affordability and inflation playing the biggest factors into why a lot of buyers are settling with a condo or townhome to start in hopes of moving up to something bigger and better as the market continues to appreciate and trend upward.I fully anticapte the remainder of this year to be a very busy one with a lot of buyers entering back into the market with talks of rates coming down in the Spring.

I mean something could go wrong and we could lose our money ..

I like your idea about putting something in your lease to say that tenant is responsible for any maintenance/repairs on GD due to tenant neglect/abuse.

Is this something that I could househack or does it need to be purely a rental property? 

It's not always the case, but many property managers will provide a discount if you bring them a portfolio to manage—something to keep in mind moving forward.