Before going this route, I did a lot of research on other Airbnb's in La Mesa and discovered there are 4 other listings that have hundreds of reviews, which means they have been renting out their trailers on the website for years.Everything was going smooth until a compliance officer from the city knocked on our door and told us we are not allowed to have anyone in it and we need to bring in the awning/ slider and disconnect from the utilities.

I have seen successful moves across the street, or around the corner... guess who pays for disconnecting and reconnecting overhead utility lines along the route.Find a lot nearbyBob

That's the disconnect in my mind.

While the electrician still proceeded with installing the pole and the cabinet for the meter, the town will not send the inspector to complete the inspection so that the power company can disconnect the power from the house and install the meter, and the electrician can connect to the power pole. 

The power had been disconnected so long all meat and stuff rotted in the fridge.

With sellers, I've seen some who proclaim their dire need to sell yet don't return phone calls or  give you phone numbers that are disconnected within days or go to voicemail boxes that are full. 

The property way to do it is to shutoff and disconnect the meter.

You should, at least once, that would be every 6 months.Repairs or improvements may not be made by a residential tenant that would be required to be depreciated, doing so leads to false tax deduction and depreciation schedules under the tax code, those tenants can not claim such expenses, if you do it's really fraud if you didn't pay for it.My rule is that if anything has to be opened up, unscrewed, disassembled or disconnected to repair it, it's my thing, not a tenant.

However, I think the odds of that happening are less now, for several reasons: stability of interests rate in the short term, and the disconnect of servicer's objective to keep a loan performing vs a lender who wants to call due to under market rates.

I guess the disconnect is why can’t you do the same with the traditional method.