If it would concentrate on rent collection only and do it well, it might be okay. 

1) Yiu REALLY need to know what CA will  allow you to do, I don’t know, but the state may say too bad landlord, you lose. 2) Assuming your attorney (Or you if you’re able to decode the laws that relate to your situation and are willing to go to court in front of a judge against a “sick” kid.) think you have the right to collect the rent I’d give them two options. 

Assign a contract: This is where you get a property under contract and you "fee" that you collect at closing is for giving the end buyer the rights to execute on the contract.

I should look at the expenses vs the income (rent collected) and not the selling price of the property. 

Quote from @Michell Chase: The signed contract states a deposit was collected, so I would make that part of your purchase agreement.

I use Buildium for tracking rent, fees, leases, and collecting online payments, but I don't use their reports for much, as I end up copying my online banking each year into spreadsheets.I've been using Rental Hero for the last hour and already impressed with it.

The cons as i see it include loosing the 2 of 5 year cap gain exception, typically not an ideal rental because the emphasis at purchase was buying a good home for your family and not a rental with optimal return (my ex-home consistently has the lowest cash flow for equity in my RE portfolio), not disconnected enough from the property causes addition angst on damage and may result in over improvement.  

But IRS allows an IRA to be invested in anything except life insurance and collectibles.

If your average heating bill is $150, you may not collect enough in the winter months when the bill reaches $225 but you'll collect extra in the summer when it drops to $65.

Even with the discount, the investor will be a life style investor who wants to own in PR more than optimize return.