You won't get this property on multiples with inspection but if it's your primary residence - don't wave inspection.Buy a regular house and don't compete with investors.Or offer substantially more money to offset their cash offer with no inspection.The price is never the only term of the offer.

It sounds like it needs a substantial amount of rehab (to your benefit) so if you can get into it for a low price with seller financing that would be ideal.

The “city” isn’t the ignorant/desperate seller you are usually looking for.....their agreement will likely require some substantial non refundable deposit and likely require you show the ability to buy.

However, living in the Bay Area where prices are substantially high, it’s hard to find a deal.

I would then start with substantially cheaper homes to invest in where I am going. 

You go in there buy it at substantially above market average cap rate, likely around 9-10% at least, dump 10%-20% of the purchase price as capital so if you bought it for $1M, you'd put $100K to $200K into it, rehab it, stabilize new rents and tenants, hold for 12-18 months and either sell or hold and yield serious cash flow. 

No one wants to be 10% short on stock when laying a floor and there is substantial waste just because of the different floor sizes and shapes.

For those who are able to save more than $30k a year or have substantial liquidity (over 200k), being a landlord and especially flipping is a lot of work.

I’d also be willing to pivot into another area in the northeast if the numbers looked substantially better.Is there any good materials or anecdotes that you have in regards to renting from a distance (4-6 driving hours)?

They carry forward indefinitely until you have passive income to offset or you dispose of the 'activity' (i.e. the property).If you're below $150k in AGI, you may be able to use some or all of the tax loss from the rental to offset other taxable income if you can substantiate active participation."