He is why we moved here to Clarksville Tennessee, we came for a christmas visit, and what I saw of the Real Estate market really gave me a much needed reason to live instead of scratching to survive- we decided to sell our farm we had a bad rent to own person in- he had breached the contract in every possible way, for about 3 years, but we were busy battling in court saving our daughters from a cult they 'just knew god wanted them in', so we did not have the time money or location to fight with him- when I finally called him to tell him out- he announced, "but I sold it!"

For instance, we give a gift card at Christmas as a Thank-You for being great tenants. 

Also, I completely understand your reluctance to move from San Diego - I visited over Christmas break, and it was wonderful - I saw a lot of new developments coming up, restaurants opening, families playing in the parks, and there are a lot of transplants from all over the country.

We have a Christmas tree farm (where the rentals are located), and our tree farm Facebook page has lots of followers, so I've advertised there, but didn't get a single booking that way.  

Many of them hate being a landlord.These are the people who tell the horror stories of fixing a leaky toilet at 2AM on Christmas Day or the horror stories about a tenant who didn't pay rent for six months and trashed the place costing them thousands.

The offer was accepted the very next day and I felt like a kid at Christmas.

I heard suggestions like putting notes in your Christmas cards that you had started real estate investing... the occasional post on Facebook... dropping hints that you are an active (though you aren't yet) real estate investor... gets them thinking about real estate when they see your success... gets them to start asking themselves questions about how they too could be successful...

My realtor has a friend who decorated the cabin for Christmas for me.

@Dawn Anastasi cool glad your an equal opportunity land lord.I give all my tenants a Turkey on thanksgiving and a ham on Christmas and have them all over for a blow out..

It can be rough- one of my three family homes was raided the day after Christmas, 9 years ago.