As far as renting the room to an adult child, the rent they pay you would be considered income to you.

I still make decent income off mine after covering added utility cost.

If so, they kind of have a leg up on us since they already saw everything and this is what they suggested.Now, depending on the cost of the guest house and your income a personal loan might be possible. 

I'm highly considering acquiring a property and converting it to a PadSplit in the Baltimore market, but my primary goal is to use the STR depreciation against my W2 income. 

We dropped the rent by $200 after a month and we got some inquiries and they said no one met the income criteria.

Go to your county web site and find out more

You cannot personally benefit from the IRA such as by receiving income personally, nor can you inject value to the IRA via the provision of goods or services. 

I understand that STR income potential is highly variable but does anyone have a good resource to systematically go through and get some sort of a range?

When determining the net income, I simply multiply gross rents by an expense ratio to determine the net income.

Must must also declare rental income and pay tax on it.There is no difference as far as taxes are concerned.