And i've only done it three times.  

HelloTrying to do gut renovation first time.

There are certain things that require experience that DIYers just can't get right or spend way too much time trying to do.

Time to get serious with the books.

No system is perfect, so don't waste your time chasing after the next shiny object.

It will just take time to remodel the place. 

Those should not need attention (in a perfect world) for some time. 

Tell them I had this done and I was unaware of the requirement and will abide next time.

We've gone through multiple rounds of support, attempts at escalations, etc, and time and again, AirBNB maintains their ruling.  

Then I would do a low risk flip ( rehab less than a few weeks) for hopefully a 10-15% profit, repeat until I have a nice down payment and am sure that I would be able to qualify for a refinance, then buy a buy and hold then continue flipping until I get to the next buy and hold - in theory, the time between each property should decrease as I should be getting capital from the buy + hold as well as I would already have my reserves built up.