I now have a few decent choices in Pittsburgh but it took me kissing about 5 frogs first. 

Obviously this is a huge concern, as a tenant could sue you as an individual for liability of the property, and in a country like this that could bankrupt you.

(These averages represent state-level data, and individual cities may levy additional taxes.)To achieve the same level of cash flow as a property in Nevada, you would need to generate a higher cash flow in Texas to offset the higher operating costs.

The areas I'm searching now for properties are serving all three audiences well, so my next step is going to be looking for inroads to the corporate people who lead the relocation set up / contracts so as to be their Property-of-Choice. ;-)Many thanks!

As individual investors are easier target than corporate.

I also think there is a decent use case for people with more capital that want to diversify their risk, but also want to select individual properties.

If a cash out refinance, many lenders will allow the cash out to satisfy the reserves requirement.DSCR lenders generally let you vest either individually or as an LLC.

Long term rentals are unattractive in CA imo especially since you can earn a lot more with different rental strategies even doing mid term rentals will still probably be more profitable than doing a long term rental.As far as hiring a contractor or bringing in subs for each item that will come down to how much you want to be involved, you'll save money finding and subbing out individual jobs but it will take you longer and you will need to manage everyone you hire and contract to do business with whereas a contractor will manage all that for you but there will be a premium put onto the price obviously for that. 

It's slowly improving and I suspect sec 8 would be a poor choice.

@David CianciThe decision to create an LLC for your real estate investments involves various factors, and it's a choice that should align with your specific goals and risk tolerance.