Florida's West coast or Austin TX are seeing 5+ months of listing inventory and declining home prices.

Yes  I think the best move here is to asses your total monthly debt and see if a cash out refi will help decrease the total interest and monthly debt obligation.

Most borrowers I speak to are just assuming that rates will drop off the table in a few months.

San Diego SFH rad average rent increase of $600/month last year (source Core Logic).  

It was usually for a month or so and if they had funds, I let them in.

If you know that a 2BR single family rental averages $1000/month in your market and someone tells you they have a good deal for you on one for $175k how much time are you going to spend analyzing it?

Fannie/Freddie now have a rule that if you are doing a cash out refinance, the loan being paid off has to be at least 12 months old. 

They are all on a month to month agreement and have all been there a year or more.

You need to be aggressive with your pricing to compete for the few available renters.I recommend dropping our price to $1,750 and offering a month-to-month lease or six-month lease.

They may also have rules that say you can't use the property as a rental during the first 12 months of ownership or at all.