If you play the long game with social media -- it will pay off in the long run by driving repeat guests to your direct bookings website as they remember their vacation at your property via following you on Instagram for little to no cost.

Quote from @Jonathan Cooke: Allow me to play the devil's advocate since nobody else is chiming in.You want to borrow money to borrow money, thinking a shortcut will make you wealthy.

If your mileage differs, then you should do it.If people are willing to play the lottery for the bare OPPORTUNITY to apply for an apartment, that's their business.

Play the numbers out 5 years with rent increases, fix debt, and conservative appreciation.

I have some real experts in the area I could reach out to that could give better insights, because Southern California has a different laws than anywhere else and there is definitely a way to play the game there.

As far as the argument for taxes being historically low and paying now vs later when they could be higher is very valid, however if you want to play the what if game, do you think there could be a point where the govt takes away the tax free status of roth accounts due to the deficit or social security that's run out of funding?

The reasoning does not change at all, regardless of which section is in play. The

You could play the game of deleting a tenant's account and then re-create, if they get back on track...

The method for putting self on payroll is related to S-corp structures, that is most often advantageous vs LLC.Or, you could play the shell game, which is as advanced level structuring as one can get and seems like over-kill unless we are taking 6/7 figure BK. 

Even market tenants here are lifers, so they know how to play the system if they want and almost no amount of screening can help that - it's just a quirk of this area from what I can tell.