It is true that market is tight in terms of getting deals.

In our state, they have one year from the time of the complaint to close out the case, and they took right up until the deadline. 

In this tight inventory market, it's far easier for you to find a 70% ARV home than it is a 60% ARV home to have room for an assignment fee.Obviously, we do it every day in both categories, but I'm also a Licensed GC with dozens of crews, a full office team including a rehab manager, etc... so it makes flipping very easy for us.Flipping is much riskier from a time, money, rehab, construction, crew, theft, vandalism during ownership, lawsuit, insurance, holding cost perspective....but we still do plenty of them.We used to be 80-90% retail flips. 

Otherwise, I’d be doing what you’re doing (trying to do it on my own) and then having many doubts and questions as the tax deadline approaches.  

I know the market is super tight and competitive, but are folks finding more luck in certain neighborhoods?

well first off this being a landlord site.. and a positive cash flow site generally speaking.. most will tell you are nuts to buy this.however if you can get the property to just about break even maybe lose 100 a month or so and you have a prime Socal asset that someone else is paying off your mortgage and you think rents can go up a little.and you can EAISLY self manage based on quality of the unit .. incredible tight rental market.. that mitigates a lot of land lord issues.I mean whats the alternative you go 1000 miles away to make 100 or 200 a month.. is that positive cash flow going to change your life..is 100 a month negative going to change your life.now this is an extreme.. but i owned a home in Palo Alto that i chose to sell back in 91 because it would have been 300 a month negative.. well that negative within 36 months would have been positive.. and i sold for 500k and today that home is worth 3 million.... and once it got positive it probably would have been positive up to 2 to 3k a month coming into the 2010's.... and someone else would have paid for my home.. plus grade A tenants at all times.. being prime Palo Alto.so thats one extreme.. its really only in low to no appreciating markets with tougher tenant bases that turn a bunch that positive cash flow becomes more acute or for those that want to one day live on their cash flow and be in the business of landlording.. thereby acquiring 50 to 100 doors. 

It seems to me that the 27th street corridor is planned for redevelopment but I can't find any deadlines and have not seen anything being done recently.

Deals are getting tight in this market and having a good deal could set you up to be in a favorable position to partner or you could wholesale for some quick cash and that could get you to doing your own deal. 

Seems like two kind of people out there....one's that focuses on keeping a tight hold of their assets and one that ignores their assets they've built while going out to obtain new assets

It's a pretty tight market so I'd be curious to hear what kind of strategy you're looking to deploy.