So I would have about 10-12 months of emergency funds to cover my bills until I build my business.

State laws have set price increases at 10% over market, most of these kick in during declared emergencies, especially for necessary items.

-Pay high interest debt like your hair is on fire-Have at least six month emergency funds to support everything.

- Emergency Maintenance (Plumber, Electrician etc.)- Lawyer specializing in landlord tenant law (again you can use your landlord association and get familiar with local laws for bad debt collection, evictions etc)- Police department, do they have community outreach programs that you can join to decrease chances of crime (Cameras and lights are great, but prevention is best!)

You also can't change the locks.For another, CA has very, very strict rules for how landlords must handle entry to the tenant's property - I don't remember the exact numbers, but I think it's at least 48 hours notice you've got to give, unless it's an emergency. 

You will have a bit more liquidity and growth potential over the long run or just in case you need it for emergencies so you can get your hands on it.

Second, the manager recently hired a family member to perform plumbing work on my rental after a call from the tenant - it wasn't an emergency since our usual handyman the brokerage uses cleared the backup.

I am using the money to rebuild my reserve accounts and make sure I have a fully funded emergency fund.

They will charge for each service separately such leasing, emergency repairs, their fee only covers rent collection.

Once we started construction, we ran into several major problems including a steam pipe running through a kitchen wall that we were planning to open up, a huge leak inside a couple of walls that required the replacing of a whole exterior wall, damaged subfloors, major termite damage that resulted in a replacement of the sill plate in the master bedroom, needing to upgrade full electrical service (and split it into two separate panels) and a corroded water line that required emergency replacement all the way to the street in the middle of winter during record setting cold temps and a snow storm.