I was told by my realtor I could use my own title agent so I didn't know if that would help me reduce costs.

However, it's important to understand that while an interest-only structure can reduce your immediate payments, it doesn't avoid taxes.

Doctors and dentists have cash earning 4% in the bank.

The extra month's deposit will cover most of that reducing the risk of nonpayment when they break that lease early. 

Pay attention to the loan-to-value ratio; a lower ratio can reduce risk by indicating more borrower equity in the property.Building relationships with lenders is essential.

Ryan if you were posing this as a general question for most beginning investors, I would say buying close to home such as house hack or within a 2 to 3 hour drive to reduce the risk that's involved with OOS investing.

And if you reduce the amount, you are reducing your protection.I have tried both and I'm still not sure which way to go.Airbnb's solution (neither one, just a virtual deposit, in case) is the best, IMO, but vrbo has not yet copied this one (I wish they would).How are you dealing with this matter for those of you on VRBO?

If your cash flow has essentially been reduced to zero (or negative), yes it probably makes sense to sell.

Who can I talk to to figure out why my status was reduced from Pro? 

There are less lenders that do short term rental loans and they will usually have a reduced loan to value / LTV.