I’m flabbergasted that any one would invest without networking on sites like this or doing research, hence why I’m doing it

What short term rental platforms/sites have worked well for you that I should consider posting the property on?

My gut says you would be best served ordering another appraisal and staying far away from that appraiser.

I would agree with this - its probably too soon / not economical to do a cash-out refinance at this point - options for freeing up equity would probably be best served via HELOC or something to that effect

Austin has a few (check out @krisclarkk on IG) but I would go find a few of the bigger cabin or glamping sites to see who they used.

I was not impressed as they would not provide any references for reviews, they sited privacy concerns, which I thought was unusual. 

Because we use Buildium it shoots our vacancies out to all the big sites like Apartments.com, Zillow, etc.  

We are listed on 15+ sites.  

To be clear, it is ok to say "this would hurt my pocket and I dislike it because I am self serving."

@Mel Watt Check out www.buildium.comI use this site for my rentals