Paying the penalty is the pain and should be avoided. 

That is just a fact of the BA.Also the pain threshold, for the buyer, in the Bay Area must be substantially higher.

You will be the one to feel the growing pains of living in the home first, so arm yourself with what you can to make it as seamless and painless as possible.

Yet, the common response in most other situations is "foreclosure is a pain, generally takes a while, and you might get the property back in a mess."

We had a new build that required a fire suppression system.Every year the fire marshal comes out to inspect the system and fire extinguishers.Last year they told us to put up a street number sign because the original was too obscure to see for the firetrucks.Everyone involved was super nice and easy to work with.Maybe the county is just going through growing pains and trying to figure it out.

The state part may be a pain. 

I would 1031 exchange into another market as your caital use on your reserves will be minimal and you can try out a new market by doing this without too much effort or financial pain.

Although a pain in hindsight it's needed - proper ventilation... plus the fan has a nice bright light which adds a lot of light to the dim bathroom.

The housing authorities want these properties in a certain condition and if your tenant is hard on the property it's going to make your life a pain in repairs and compliance.   

Yeah, back in my days of doing slews of redemptions I had 1 bank who was reliably a pain in the azz and never workable.