The city will likely be the one to govern short term rental policy. 

To make a long story short, we have a lot in Woodinville, WA (outside Seattle) for sale.

And I think getting a short sale will be difficult, as you have to show all of your assets and a lot of banks won't agree to a short sale, if you have cash and other assets.

One Has to see the option agreement to see if it is still valid......short of that it’s a crap shoot.

Am I able to buy a house to live in it short term (few months maybe), and then later rent it out as an investment while I travel?

You have to weigh the upside and downside and compare that with your short term and long term goals.

We agreed to split the cost of the short notice with tenant (basically split 9 days of rent) as we were that eager to get rid of them.  

Unfortunately, multifamily is too complicated for short-hand analysis.

I do inspections semiannually.In my relatively short tenure as a landlord, tenants that are "up to no good" have both (a) paid rent like clockwork and (b) been unresponsive to any communication.In addition, my lease has the following provision:  (o) You shall keep us informed of your current contact information at all times, including phone numbers, emails, and emergency contacts.

. - Buy using hard cash, - Refinance my other properties to get the cash back + get the rehab fund, - Rehab of $30,000 to increase it's value to around $230,000- Rental units of 50 units with nett cashflow after expense and mortgage of $1200- Repeat: finding another opportunities with the extra money that I got from refinance Conclusion: I got the property with 0 cash invested (though short term cash is needed & using other property for refinancing), get $1200 / month (still in progress).