Rental should be $1,600 a month.This year, I plan to build one more rental property, and it will require financing.

In short, I can afford the additional $1100/mo cost of a second house, even until I rent it out.I have around $35K in HYSA and emergency funds that I could use for a down payment, but that's less than 20% which would be required for a conventional loan, assuming full purchase price.

A car forum that I'm a part of, and I know the owner of the forum, told me that the dedicated app required constant work and updates as phones and operating systems changed. 

My advice is to require them to pay the full balance upon the next payment.

Now many escrows will require that the seller sign off on the EMD release, which can be frustrating since most contracts say it should be a unilateral function (buyer automatically gets their EMD back if they cancel within the option period), but if a seller chooses to be a jerk and not sign it, the EMD could be frozen in escrow, so don't use your rent money for it. 

One thing to consider since you are a California resident investing is the compliance requirements for LLCs incorporated in California or operating as a foreign entity here - the rules here are different than most states.  

Majority of the houses are old and require frequent repairs in addition to a poor tenant base that can't pay on time and don't care about their credit.

we did this a lot pre 07  in that year Oregon WA and then CA made laws that had lots of teeth about dealing with those in foreclosure.. so we just stopped doing it risk was not worth it.I cant see how an individual can do this really..

With no proof required.  

Given the competitive market at the time, every property was receiving multiple offers, and securing a deal required both strategy and speed.