Operating your rental like a business is mandatory to protect you, your ROI, and your property.Hope this helps...

I have experience investing (own 2 STRs and an assisted living home+business).

With an LLC, you may be able to deduct business expenses more effectively and avoid double taxation.

I only pay for BP leads and all other business comes from my sphere/referrals. 

You can put your license in referral at most brokerages and pay no fees and still be able to do referral business.

I have my businesses in Denver.

So, yes, you can absolutely have a great rental business as an out of state ( and even international ) investor, as long as you have a solid team that are your boots on the ground. 

Now more than ever, I am seeing offers required to be submitted through a portal where the listing agents want no business being involved with up front negotiations.

Keep personal and business finances separate to create less headache.You should also do the following to make your bookkeeping easier:- File all receipts in a dedicated Google Drive folder.

California needs businesses to start putting a lot of pressure on it.