I know that everyone makes them out to be these great and easy properties to manage but they are extremely difficult.

We are both physicians and relatively intelligent humanoids, but without knowing what you don't know, it seems a difficult task. 

Overall, it's a great idea/theory, but execution has gotten much more difficult between regulation and market saturation in some more popular areas.

CA is a very difficult state to be a landlord in and there is a high likelihood that the PM was doing there best to save you from the headache of CA laws. 

The difficult part isn't finding that property; the difficult part is finding quality roommate tenants and having good systems for screening, setting up rules and maintaining your future investment to achieve the best results. 

This put me at a difficult position having to explain the difference between cancellation and alteration request, and why alteration request is not in line with cancellation policy.

I've heard CA insurance is tricky but had no idea just difficult.

Refinancing would require more equity and higher interest rates, making it difficult to lower mortgage payments.

If this is in a build to rent location it may be where builder got them rented at a very high price because are brand new but now when it comes time to fill it is very difficult to find that tenant.

The website will be difficult to do from my experience with out of country websites promoting illegal activites.