In my STR market, i hardly get any bookings from VRBO but don't want to miss out on possiblities.Another problem is VRBO charges (5+3)8% for advertisement booking and guesty handles payments in this case. whereas Airbnb charges a flat 3%.

Have a lower monthly payment, not pay PMI, be able to save a bit more from the W2 jobs each month, as well as having a greater percentage of the mortgage covered by the upstairs tenants. 

We wanted a new primary residence, and wanted to find something we could have a rental on the same property to supplement our mortgage payment.

Even if you create a non-CA LLC, if you are managing the business from California, you will likely be deemed to be "doing business" in California and therefore likely subject to CA taxes.

Customers in the shoulder season appear to be much much more price sensitive and highly prefer payment plans.

Property management contractor is about 15% higher vs a contractor I found.How does one go about refusing to use their contractor and payment.

Credit score is about 760. 25 year term with a 5 year draw period.Option 1 using max line of credit:At the max loan to value of 89.99% the interest rate increases to 11.5% This is prime of 8.5% + 3%.Line of credit amount: $140,000Estimated interest only payment: $1,245.83Estimated full qualifying payment: $1,489.04Option 2Dropping the loan to value to 80% to decrease the rate to 10.5%.

If a difficult tenant told me I’ll have sold the building before they move I’d be looking at the old lease and already giving them notice of non-renewal at the first opportunity.

Use the $40k as a down payment on a duplex bro.

Let's do a quick (I hope) and dirty look at it:1 - 100k SFH bought with a standard NOO Mortgage at 5% which rents for $1k, and lets assume; that unicorns exist and fart rainbows, you have 100% Lease Up, and $0 for repairs for the first, lets say, 5 years on all of your properties, and that we buy everything on the first day of the year.Year 1: You Spend 30k to purchase house, you owe 70k your payments are: 376 a month giving you a free cash flow of 1000 - 376 = $627!