I consul them to always include a street view of the property, from across the street, showing the entire house in situ, in order to answer the question for the guests (who have never been there before): "What are we looking for as we drive down the street" My 2 cents,Mike

They're being built in places like Sylmar, Panorama City, and Sun Valley.

The cities laws make landlord very difficult for raising rents and evicting tenants. 

See the attached maps of his/his related entity real estate investments (courtesy of The Wall Street Journal). 

Make sure you research rental licensing requirement per municipality as they very greatly and make some cities a real pain to deal with. 

The government has tried it with section 8 and rent control in some cities , we all know the end result .You would be better off starting a jobs program teaching the trades , educating them on finances and work ethic and then rebuilding abandoned properties for them to buy 

Unlike true multifamily, meaning the county or city has the property categorized as multifamily, you can't use potential rental income from the additional units to help you qualify (if the home is single family per the appraisal, that is).

Are there areas/cities more open to multifamily rezoning compared to others?

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.The City of Detroit has 183 Neighborhoods we’ve analyzed.DM us if you’d like to discuss this logical approach in greater detail!

All the other houses on the street seem to be fine.