Seems like your biggest issue is rent - what is market rent and what prevents you from achieving that rent?

Bonus depreciation and Section 179 allowances for improvements can be utilized, with the latter, however, capped at zero to prevent negative losses.

They don't realize that most mortgages are written to PREVENT this and don't read the fine print. 

Yes this was a air bnb booking. 

I have called 5 water companies in California and they all have said privacy laws prevent them from giving me the list.

Anonymity is not asset protection and will not prevent claims from arising.

Home depot/lowes sells mold test kits you can use once the basement is dried out.Once you have the basement dry, the next order of business is to figure out the cause(s) of the flooding, and hopefully address those causes to prevent future floods.There are multiple potential reasons for your flooding--it could be ground water rising up from underneath the house, it could improper drainage around the house, it could be cracks in the foundation or slab, it could be water coming in through the window wells, it could be all of those things, or it could be something else entirely.  

➡️ How many air conditioning (AC) units have been replaced in the last two years?

I’m not saying anyone should rent if that doesn’t align with someone’s long term goals, I’m just saying that in most cases if your goal is only to be somewhere for a few years it makes more sense to rent, real estate isn’t magic you just simply can’t create a deal out of thin air, margins are the margins, rates are the rates & you make a plan based on that, but there’s not some secret way to make money, even off market deals I’ve found are often worse margins than on-market deals.

Someone else on this chain suggested they were already trained, but I assume they meant on Air Bnb, not trained on your specific way of doing things.