It does no good to place capital with a sponsor who has a project with an attractive pro forma to find out later they can't be trusted, or that they simply don't have the experience needed to execute the plan for the deal.

We simply facilitated everything for him And helped by being boots on the ground for him.

I've read and heard first hand how people pay 3-5 figure ticket prices for courses/seminars that teach them less than they can learn right here on BP... for free, as you mentioned.All in all, I'm sure it was eye opening for you to see how much you can learn and do on your own by simply applying yourself.I know BP will continue to add value to you!

I'm simply stating the fact that your position is biased by definition, and that can very well backfire. 

Anything less, and it's simply a bad deal.Good luck.

If you want to simply house hack, you don't need the credibility of others.

You are simply changing circumstances of ownership.You definitely do not want to become part of the 1031 as that is prior to the exchange and the IRS has demonstrated they don't like that.

And this gets me back to the 2nd paragraph, the goal is simply to have the cash value grow and eliminate the insurance company's risk.

After these projects concluded and were sold, a decision was made by him in part due to financial stability (I still needed to work) created over last 2 years and cracks we began seeing in the global economy. 

I tend to buy in the Southern half of the US for 2 reasons:1) you get much higher year-round occupancy rates in the South & it’s simply tough to earn a good ROI in the North if your place sits vacant for a big chunk of the year2) Culturally, the Southern half of the US seems to be a lot more accepting of STRs regulation-wise.