If it makes a person uncomfortable that I don't have my commissioned real estate sales agent's license, and they have months to wait around for a realtor to  list and sell their $200K house at a massive discount for $194K, fine.

Hey Welcome to the real estate investing world, In my opinion you do not need much capital to begin wholesaling the most of your marketing dollars in the beginning will go towards direct mail campaign ( These can get a bit expensive but the return is great if done right )  So i would suggest getting your feet wet with wholesaling before jumping right in and spending massive dollars on marketing and just start with getting some bandit signs to attract buyers/sellers , and building a website to attract leads also and build from there.

This is what makes this very tough for a homeowner to buy something to live in. as they get lazer focused and it never goes to sale. they waste time and energy chasing it.And if its LA if there is any equity at all you will have massive competition..For due diligence simply order a preliminary title report for a few hundred and that will tell you the story.. some auction sites will publish the TSG  but not all.good luck

Just think what would've happened in 2007/08 if interest rates were already at zero...we most likely would've gone into a massive depression... 6.  

There are many diverse fortune 500 companies here that tend to not lay people off in massive numbers, and that keeps the local economy fairly stable.

This brings down common charges massively. 

Some good answers: Moved out of town, inherited a property, massive ____ damage, tenants ran out on me, etc. 

Sounds like your mind is in he right place...Now time for some massive action!

if you have all your cash (eggs) in one basket you are taking on a massive amount of risk (and reward).  

Unless you're buying something massive - tens of units - I wouldn't worry too much about how much they have it rented for and for how long, outside of what existing leases say and deposits that are/should be on file - you will want those, and you have to abide by existing leases until they expire.