Looking for advice from an RE perspective to make the most of this opportunity.Right now my thought to is rent our primary home as an STR (looking into zoning to see if we can transition it into a duplex-- would be easy with our current layout) and househack into a multifamily (and see if we could do STRs or LTRs then refi and use that as down payment on a new home. 

yes but the guy here is asking from a newbie perspective.

Kyle, strictly from a macro perspective, I think we could be in for a pretty significant downdraft on prices, perhaps 30 percent or more. 

Put that in perspective, you have credit card bill and your balance is $50,000 and your payment of $1000 only reduces your balance by $550 dollars.

When you go and view the property with your realtor, take the time to look at it from a different perspective.

On 12/23, it looks like the slab of tar outside of the home is fresh which means someone was working on something (this slab leads to the basement and is likely related to the gas lines).

For those that have a W2, they have different perspectives and needs from their investments.

I think it's really helpful to get a few different perspectives from others.Even if you pay a management company eventually, I think it's a really good learning experience to have that deeper experience initially.  

With trying to keep an investor perspective in mind would it just be appropriate to privately message the host about the issues with our stay or to include them in a review?

I believe that should be OK from the 1031 perspective.