If you are concerned it will be too hard to find a renter, lower the price and rent it for three months, then place a new tenant at the higher rate after winter.

Do you believe mortgage rate will start to decrease?

Mind you, with mortgage interest rates in the US being so much higher now (and seemingly for the foreseeable future), I wouldn't be surprised if LTRs in Europe would cash flow better than in the whole US nowadays (to be verified).This being said, I don't and would never invest in LT rentals outside of North America  as I wouldn't want to face unfavourable landlord/tenant laws as a foreigner.

Because this property is located in midtown historic district of Sacramento, we feel there may be market for both MTR and STR, but first thing is we will target LTR and let 3 or 4 units filled in.When we first start developing this apartment from ground up, it was intended to flip and move on to the next project, with timing and interest rate etc.. we deiced to keep it as a cash cow for a while and see how things go.  

That it can impact your 5 star review more than what you can charge on a daily rate.

I suspect that will be the rate in the auction coming up in May.

Are the units rented at market rate, or is there room for rent increases?

I will ask if there would be a discount for better accounting on my part. 

I believe that the Federal Reserve is going to cut rates by 25-50 bps at it's September meeting (no emergency cut), but that 30-year fixed rate mortgage rates will rise to upper 6s low 7s around the same time, and Commercial borrowing rates, including for multifamily, will increase as well. 

And you'll have the best rate/points options with a primary residence.Option #2 is great, especially if you're willing to move into one of the units (because the down payment minimum is just 5% or 3.5% depending on program), but as you mentioned it's really tough here to find small multifamily here.