Just to ensure we're not letting anti-PMI bigotry in the way of being rational, compare the P&I rate with PMI rolled in, to the P&I+PMI rate without PMI rolled in, both at 90% LTV.

You can research mentors on BP (though understand that BP is very anti-guru and will lump a lot of mentors in this group, so you will get the range of reviews). 2.

One piece of advice I can give you is to pay attention to counties anti-discrimination laws.  

When I first started I wasn't thinking about when the casino closed but weather or not I could continue to play the game and increase my anti.

I actually started a different thread on this.It is VERY anti-business and it retards the value of real estate...and retards formation of NEW real estate projects.As bad as it is...it is one of the factors that is going into the getting of good deals. 

While I'm normally anti-CA for buying properties because there typically isn't cash flow around here, I'm trying to convince my parents (who live in Redlands, just at the bottom of BB) to buy a mountain house up there so I can escape to it as much as I want and go snowboarding from there a bunch. :) The idea would be to vacation rental it out when we aren't using it ourselves, so interested to hear people's take on that aspect of it.

I'm not scared of tenants, but the latest tightening of anti-landlord rules is draconian, and I know from insider contacts that a number of landlords are going to be made an example of over the next 6-18 months.

Some of my thoughts:Majority of San Diegans believe in anti-growth yet cannot pass any anti growth bills. 

Out of town investors are amazed at how cheap these properties are, but they are also amazed at turnover costs vacancy and how anti-Landlord the cities are becoming.

Likewise, as Troy mentioned, on move-out.A moving fee is anti-tenant compared to a security deposit.