I suggest you add beautification with landscape, trees, flowers.

I'm looking to  purchase property in the the Long Beach or Bell Flower area of California.  

I wouldn't be waiting any amount of time to deal with a case that can result something showing up on my permanent record or worse, a bench warrant arrest for failure to appear in court and more sanctions.You are welcome to give him a week to secure the property/ send you pictures/ flowers or whatever (however I personally would not recommend this), but these are judicial proceedings and only you or your attorney can take care of these issues directly, so I would take these very seriously and consider these issues your problem alone to settle in coordination with your attorney.

For example 7 years ago in my town of Flower Mound similar to Frisco but without highways & major employers a house could be had for $150k not new but older & needing some updates.

Worst case for me is that the money I dump on it is making me 4.2% (actually a better return than a lot of landlords these days) by saving me 4.2% on my heloc interest expense while I wait.It leaves me with dry powder when the next buying opportunity comes around and since the draw period is 10 years I'm feeling pretty confident that I'll have plenty of dry power ready when the market turns.And in the meantime it allows me to accelerate once again into a free and clear primary barring any unfortunate "too good to pass up" deal that I'll need to ply my wife with flowers  and maybe a little convertible to get her to say yes to.Kind of like a real savings account that's paying me 4.2% while i decide where to use it.  

Flower Mound and Highland Village are nice. 

If it is flowers and a sign at the entry to the development and a lot rules, make sure that is for you. 

Other times of the year - if you find out your tenant is recovering from a surgery, have a flower delivery service drop off a $30 "get well" flowers - just did that one this week.

So here are pros and cons of managing yourself.Pros:  you keep all profits (except 3% to credit card company), get to know guests, create a rapport with regular guests, make it personalized and memorable for your guests (my housekeeping staff was great and would leave flowers for anniversaries and balloons for bdays)Cons: Phone calls late at night sometimes, dealing with guests who are nasty and ignore your rules (ie no pets/no smoking, but it's nice having damage waiver in place), trial and error finding right housekeeping/maintenance/HVAC/plumbing people.Going with a property management company pros and cons:Pros:  they deal with all the issues and reservations callsCons: they may not be as attentive to your property as you would be and don't follow through with rules of no pets/no smoking.

You're right, don't over build, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, so don't buy a sow's ear, Do buy the cheapest house on the block, that gives you room to force appreciation.Unless you're a cash buyer, don't buy homes you can't finance!