I like to tell this story because it illustrates a simple, repeatable, low-risk way to get started and go from thinking you can't get into real estate to giving you a chunk of cash to then go buy something bigger with. 

If its apparent your money is working to its highest potential - great, or if its illustrated that your money could work harder in another opportunity and you have the potential to capitalize on the markets appreciation.

With the MI payout you are actually betting that your property will not cumulatively appreciate/be paid down by 16.5% (4% yearly) in 45 months ($18,000 divided by $400 monthly=45 months); I use 45 months to illustrate how long it will take for the MI payment to reach $18,000, as this is actually how long it will take you to actually save $ if you do the MI paydown. 

You may wonder how my initial cost estimates were so far off, so here are a few examples to illustrate. - I estimated around $5,000 for demo.

I know you mentioned interest in investing elsewhere but perhaps this illustration helps narrow down your goals and answers your questions.

I would need gross monthly income projections and your effective tax rate to put an illustrative analysis with my software together for you. 

So a few Californians moving to Boise make it feel (to residents of Boise) like an exodus.Another fun fact to illustrate my point: in 2018, 118K Californians left the state for other states.

I concede that we shouldn't be responsible for supporting the government in the same amount, and will illustrate supporting CA on a sliding scale.

How do you pinpoint areas from a distance, can you still find success in markets like the one I'm illustrating above?

There are many way sellers (or brokers) can manipulate cap rate, so it is important to understand how to value a property yourself and not rely completely what they are demonstrating.To keep it really general, the cap rate is simply an illustration of the expected "rate of return" that investors are currently expecting to receive if they paid cash for a property.