I had scraped and struggled along until then and I was just exhausted from the transient nature of the “gigs” I used to support myself up until that point .

Our offices are in the southern parts of the US so naturally we're more comfortable with buying in our backyard.

Just nature, life NO media of any kind at all. 

It’s probably not that you’re “small potatoes” to your PM, but more a reflection of the nature of the market itself—low rents, properties with higher maintenance needs, and tenant issues.These factors make properties in these neighborhoods more difficult to manage and generally less profitable for property managers.

I assume you mean the ONE by you is a “natural” wildfire?

Please keep in mind investors, not every deal that you place under contract will close - that's just the nature of the beast when it comes to investing. 

I was just curious about how those relationships naturally come about.

Prices a few years ago were based on expectations of (in addition to interest rates staying low): - Then current operating cost assumptions (like insurance cost expectations being flat)- A seeming disregard for record levels of new inventory / supply hitting the market- Extremely high inbound migration expectations which are likely to not be met, due to both natural disasters and the boomerang effect when people from California or the Northeast move to the American South and hate every minute of the humidity, the large and relentless swarm of insects, and the occasional hurricane. 

There are many more and many more personal goals such as getting married and starting a family, adopting my first GSP dog, traveling to Wyoming and Montana and spending more time in nature, just to share a few.

Most likely the state where the property is located is where lawsuits would be brought if they are something for personal injury like a trip and fall or something of that nature because the “cause of action” arose in that state.