On top of the 2 that are ongoing, I'm permitting for 2 new builds, and I noticed that pool prices came down a few bucks, and my truss prices were 30% less than when I started building 6 months ago.  

I  took over a mature company that had an investor base that I think average age had to be 65 to 70..

This is the question I was going to ask....you are bucking the odds by staying in SoCal.

While we were onboarding the property to the system and trying to figure out the automated sprinklers, he was out there every day watering the lawn by hand, stopping the buck and taking personal responsibility. 

bucks. 

As world economics and geo politics have become more of a constant, this Teak investment will serve for diversification in asset class, maturity- since you don't have to harvest, currency arbitrage since main customers are China/India/Europe. 

I think that is very reasonable move for matured owners like you but I don’t think it benefits most new hosts who should really focus on the ranking over expanding their market.Also I have 1000+ reviews as a super host on Airbnb and I work in a very similar role as a senior resolution case manager.

that's worth one or two hundred bucks a month too. 

They're just trying to intimidate you and see if you'll voluntarily cough up a few bucks.

At the end of the day, there have been and will continue to be a lot a salesman trying to make a quick buck off unwitting investors, whether accredited or "sophisticated".