Water in San Diego is real expensive.  

I recommend determining your set price point plus closing cost expense and then calculating what minimum rent would be required to cash flow the property. 

If that's not the monthly income, you are arriving at your cap rate by using incorrect expense ratios/expense figures and/or the property benefits from an extremely favorable tax abatement which skews the operating costs.

@Hsin-I Hsu  Owning a $2.5M house can be an expensive commitment, not just because of the upfront down payment but also due to the ongoing expenses for repairs, maintenance, and upgrades that inevitably come with homeownership.Renting at $5K a month, especially for a 4-bedroom house in the Bay Area, seems like a solid deal.

Accounting System with "Control" ChecksSoftware to manage revenues, expenses, payroll, and taxes, etc., and ability to verify receipts and transactions (the verification is done by upper management to check and validate the revenues and expenses)4.

Rooming houses dwindled in numbers, and zoning regulations took out the rest.Now apartments in popular suburbs are as expensive as in center cities, and for people of even moderate means their own apartment or house may not be realistic financially.  

I honestly believe a lot of investors are being forced to buy properties that cash flow less per unit but then one big expense and you’re in trouble.

These risks include, but are not limited to, lack of liquidity, limited transferability, conflicts of interest and real estate fluctuations based upon a number of factors, which may include changes in interest rates, laws, operating expenses, insurance costs and tenant turnover.Investors should also understand all fees associated with a particular investment and how those fees could affect the overall performance of the investment.

Higher property taxes compound the expense for buyers, making affordability harder to achieve.

Like @Jay Hinrichs mentioned, it’s more expensive, but for reasons.