North of Austin, the county regulations say you don't have to do it IF you're only doing residential, certain lot sizes and limiting the impervious cover of each lot.

I currently have 25 accommodations on Hospitable, but it's starting to be limiting for the reasons you must have encountered.I'm currently looking into Guesty and Hostaway, and I'm having a hard time making a decision!

However, the loan would need to be under my name, as they won’t allow LLCs.I’ve received advice from others who feel comfortable with this arrangement as long as they have high insurance coverage limits, which the lender also recommended.

Often when new investors are excited to scale, especially with limited funds, they start looking into to getting a third on seller finance or sub to, but the first two properties have repairs coming and all you do is add a third property that needs repairs to your portfolio.This - "investing with limited funds (like distressed property flips)" - is an oxymoron.

This would be ideal in terms of cash flow (after a few years) and equity appreciation since you'd be achieving tremendous returns on limited equity in the form of appreciation, principal paydown and tax benefits aside from only cash flow. 

Limited Future Borrowing: Tying up multiple properties as collateral may limit the borrower’s ability to secure additional financing in the future, as those assets are already committed.4.

If not, you can always increase the rent to market value, but my guess is it being California, there are limits to rent increases.

Buying with cash simplifies management, eliminates interest, and increases immediate CoC returns but limits scalability and diversification.

I would encourage you to break it down into. 1) single or multi family 2) Buy and hold vs flip --I would definitely buy and hold if you have limited knowledge when it comes to property repairs (you can always flip later).  

MOLD: You must take steps to limit the growth of mold in your apartment.