Just do me one little favor.

Facts as stated sound heavily in your favor.

We are considering living in the property for a year for more favorable mortgage terms, and Airbnb is something I'd love to do again. 

I would exit the California market due to the tenant favorable laws and regulations and the risk of long term population loss in the state.Be careful about paying off mortgages to increase cash flow - it may make you more money to refinance and reinvest to increase the number of units. 

Deals are few and far between and any decent deals that cashflow favorably are getting snatched up quickly.This leads me to explore another option...

Let's see if they succeed.I do know that in Taney County there is actually a motion on the ballet this next February 14th to remove permanently R-1 for nightly rental conditional use permits.

He knows that area well and that would be my first stop .Secondly there were some pretty bad actors selling US props to Aussies back in 2011 to about 2016 when the exchange rate was so favorable to Aussie dollar.. but so man Aussies got totally ripped off paying 2X 3X 5X over the actual values of the properties.. 

Maybe just keep doing what I'm doing until rates favorable and I have desire to reduce my w-2 hours.

Do us both a favor and go buy some property. ;-) No, the discussion doesn't belong in my DMs - it belongs here, on the public forum where you made the initial comment.

Question is what to do when market doesn't favor max leverage?