However, with my 1 short term rental I am struggling to remain confident that this is the right strategy as when something does happen it seems I lose at least a couple days with them dispatching and then following up.  

@Rehaan Khan yes as said the term is "Seller Financing" however I sugest you do not use that term as it might confuse the seller.

to give some feedback, you will need to estimate the cost to repair the house; if you don't know how to do that, we just need some  information of what the house needs and the sqft of the propertyIf the house is, as an example, 2500 sqft, and It looks like you are stuck in time back in the 1980s, but the AC is working,  the roof is ok, and there are no foundation, plumbing, or electrical issues; I can assume maybe a $20 per sqft, so the rehab is about $50K to 60KIf the ARV is 290K minus 10% closing/holding costs, - minus 20% profit - $50K rehab, ideally, in this example, I need to buy the house for about $150K to flip it, but as a landlord, I may be able to pay a bit more, as long as rehab is not too much, and rental is about $3,000 to $3,500 a month

While reading your post I was thinking "sell the Cali properties", but with 3-4% interest rates (and I'm assuming those are long term fixed rates) you will be best off to cash out refi (non-tax event) and use those funds to buy multifamily.

THE AGENT MAY NOT UNDERSTAND ALL THAT TALK, PLUS IT'S NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS WHAT YOUR GOING TO DO, AS LONG AS HE RECEIVES 3% FROM SELLER,  THE $2,000 FROM YOU AS WELL AS HIS CLIENT SELLING OFF HIS PROPERTY AT THE PRICE CURRENT LISTED PRICE (OR WHATEVER YOU NEGOTIATE) ....

This can be advantageous because it often allows for more flexible terms, such as lower down payments and sometimes even lower interest rates.

Just curious, how long are they giving you to get compliant?

I want to know if it is worth doing it and how long we should keep it?

If the title company has a long term escrow department better chance they would be willing to work with you as they could facilitate payments after closing as well if the parties wanted that.If taking time to find that one asky why the ones you have used don't want to touch the deal is there something wrong with the deal you aren't seeing, or they just don't want to do it.Best of luck!

They seem, at the surface, to be a logical instrument for long term incentive alignment, especially in today's market.