I'm not familiar with your market but the faster you can start paying your own mortgage rather than someone else's you're one step closer to the long-term goal of financial freedom. 

Leverage equity, refinance, and find partners for faster portfolio growth.Good luck!

.), allowing you to evaluate deals faster and more consistently.

So, if I budget 5% for vacancy, I can readily beat that budgeted estimate.4.

Will your savings grow faster than property values?

Short term rental homes/units drive up the price of homes faster than primary residences and long term rentals.Shifting from long to short in some locations is perfectly reasonable, however I highly recommend you check out your local city's ordnances discussing the requirements for short term rentals.

Some days it runs faster than others but overall it feels like it's still in beta phase or not ready for widespread use.

Although the cost of the house is more upfront the value goes up faster and renting is fairly quicker in california.

I would avoid this if its your first acquisition  but you also appear to have enough cash to complete the purchase without financing so you wouldn't necessarily be at risk of losing your deposit, only incur additional transactional costs.

Private money lending offers the ability to structure deals in ways traditional lenders won’t, such as faster closings and tailored terms like interest-only payments or balloon payments.