I personally would pay to skip the line and condense time. 

Little by little… so as someone who knows nothing really about this business.. how does one go ( consumer) to find direct bookings and skip VRBO and airbnb..

All that said...if you're not confident you can get at least 1.5x your LT rents as an MTR, I think I might go with long term but skip the management company and DIY. 

Have you use DealMachine with skip tracing in it now?

I spoke to a guy last night the guys down payment and monthly and a womans just in January was way different good way . one part I found interesting on top of all the systems etc was that they cover earnest money deposits too..others more costly , no monthly payments , skip trace system they will cover closing costs ,inspections etc but not earnest money..I get tons of good deals from wholesalers plus other methods ..that was huge to me..I didn't see earnest money in agreement though .

Propstream is a platform to get more details of a particular property and they dont have skip tracing facility. 

These contracts run from 3 - 5 years; is there a downside to skipping recording until deed is ready to go to the borrower, as long as I'm staying on top of taxes?

From my conversations with others in the industry, I've noticed that skip tracing software, like the ones I mentioned, can be very useful.

I started reading on page one and then skipped to page 9.  

Just skip that month’s mortgage payment?