I'm staying put in a 1000 sf $800K shack in Santa Barbara, paying the high income and sales tax.

In Austin and Santa Barbara I've seen high-end Airstream parks that look like they are minting money.

Andrew Johnson “I use Appfolio out of santa barbara, ca its definitely not free and my property mgmt company passes those costs down to me which I think is around 50-60 bucks a month based on number of units under the service.I am able to see all reports from rent rolls, cash flow statements / trailing 12 month cash flow, tenant ledgers, maintenance requests, dialog between tenants and mgmt staff, resolutions to maintenance requests, move in pictures, move out pictures, or video, and many more features.What I like is that it allows the vendors to be in a dialog/text/chat box so they are prepared (vendor) prior to job assignment with lockbox codes, scope of work and pictures before they even go to the site so we dont waste time figuring things out and run up a huge $$$ bill for lack of efficiency.”

Lots of families and roommates don't need to live in the same unit all the time but still want to "live together" and pool resources.I live in a 2BDR/1BA in Santa Barbara with a small 1 room studio (no bath) in the garden.  

I don't want to be looking for tenants in the dead of winter 3) I read somewhere that the best months to find tenants is after school is out ;)Barbara G.

Give it a try.Best of luck to you,Barbara

Barbara

I live in Santa Barbara, CA but the property I found is in Hobbs, New Mexico.

Sorry for the confusion Barbara G., thanks for the input.

Quote from @Barbara Wilson-Scranton: Thank you so much for the advice!