What do you do when in house goes on vacation? 

Look for a location with low crime, then look for the neighborhoods with the best schools.

I need to rent my house out but thinking about going the untraditional route ie Airbnb, Padsplit etc.

I would like to get into house hacking another small multifamily as soon as possible.

As already mentioned, you could sell via seller financing to lower AGI, as all you would have to claim is the payment income - until balloon payment received.Did know an investor that had 14 properties paid off and he moved into one every two years to then sell with the $250k single exemption.

LTR and MID term are hot now as well, we have more people that want houses than houses to rent to them.  

It is not just leaving your house with somebody. 

There’s an obvious housing shortage here in SoCal.

Only because it's $250K for a house?

Housing has become a "crisis" all over the globe.