In addition, 5% to 8% each for maintenance and cap ex would be way too low in virtually every market but possibly not in high rent San Francisco.  

It's in a challenging area where Section 8 is virtually my only tenant base—not a slum by any means, and the house itself is in great condition.Here are the options I'm considering:A) Keep and Re-rent to Section 8: By investing in some upgrades (paint, cabinetry, toilets), I can increase the rent to $2k (from $1800), projecting a cash flow of approximately $1300/month.B) 1031 Exchange into a Short-Term Rental (STR) in Shenandoah: This would involve using a portion of the proceeds to make the property Airbnb-ready.

Virtually all my cold belt clients on the NNN side buy in warm belt states because they see the growth there long term and many state they want to retire in a warm belt state.

While you can invest your 401k funds into virtually anything, you can't direct/spend funds "anywhere"; some restrictions exist.

@Darius Kellar Not everything can be done virtually and done well.You should consider attending REIAofOakland.com and MREI.com events to expand your knowledge and network. 

Attend Multifamily AP360 Virtual Summit 2022 

Check out the Events tab at the top to find local and virtual meet ups.

i do think as others have said you'd need both the housing AND a support structure.one thing i thought of in response to your idea is the model Scott Jelinek uses:https://www.amazon.com/Art-SlowFlip-Scott-Jelinek-ebook/dp/B...i am not affiliated with Scott, have nothing do with him, and am not recommending this. 

Most states that require license and NMLS registration for 1 to 4 unit loans no matter on the purpose of the loans ( and there are 12 states currently that I know of that require this thats why there really is NO national HML virtually none are licensed in all 50 states even though they advertise that way).

They are able to do it all virtually, which reduces their costs drastically from what it used to cost to get a specialist out to your house to charge tens of thousands.