Ideally you want to separate gross rental income at the "top" and have all your expenses, then have at the bottom "cash flow".

I created the following chart to simplify the decision process (click to enlarge).The Bottom LineEvaluate the property based on whether it will enable you to achieve financial freedom.

California does not recognize series LLCs.You also want to look at whether a pass-through entity helps your bottom line and your taxes.

In my opinion, International Living is scraping the bottom of the barrel. 

Go into your basement and measure the height of the bottom stair that sits on the concrete.

(edd/ui source attached at bottom).If you pay hourly/piece work job, it does constitute an employee/employer relationship.CA is expensive, with the $800 FTB yearly fee, plus WC, plus your city license.

Then you should have nothing to worry about.For many years now we have been telling investors to use their own expense deductions when calculating a return on investment.Our marketing team only quotes the “hard costs” as in - taxes, insurance and property management fees.We suggest discounting another 15% from the bottom line for maintenance and vacancy but I’d much prefer for everyone to OVERESTIMATE the expenses and UNDERESTIMATE the income using their own calculations.If the numbers work out then, the investment might be worth pursuing further.Classifying areas can sometimes get convoluted.Since I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth and consider myself a working class guy, my perception of B class might be someone’s of “Z class” lolMy advice to all is to visit town and see the areas for themselves.I’m confident they will be impressed.Especially if they have already toured other markets with similar price points to ours.Real estate is a rollercoaster of a ride and as much as we want to make it hands off/passive.

Check out places very well before you buy, looking at costs, checking the place top to bottom, looking up who owned it before, comparing prices in the area, checking out tenants, and looking at the legal stuff.

Traditional brokerages are also ‘Pyramid’s’, however, the agents are at the bottom!  

We've had FedEx freight refuse deliveries up a mountain before and leave the load at the bottom of the mountain so it definitely can happen.