We are in a mature market and I'm not saying the recession will start tomorrow, but we are closer to a downturn now that the recovery is 10 years old. 

Since you have a lower DP, the time to recovery (and profits) is much faster.The result is:1 - Lower cost to you (DP)2 - Higher CF total since your payoff/recovery of your only cost (DP) is much faster.3 - Seller gets more money since the total interest charged would be higher.

Here's some more information on how to do this: How to Find Someone’s Forwarding Mail Address Without Them Knowing.4) Lastly, if you simply cannot get their new address to serve them, consider reporting the debt to a debt reporting service such as Rent Recovery Service or AOA Debt Reporting Service who will go after them AND report it to the credit bureaus so it appears on their credit report. 

It happens to be that the physical therapist taking care of me is a lady that is trying to move out of this practice she works for, where the target market is geriatric care and wants to expand her outside network of athletes that she currently takes care off (for injury therapy and body motion maintenance reasons) and treat them on her own.When she mentioned that, I instantly thought, what can I put together with this situation for cash flow with REI.

As for work, he's been 15 years with the same employer (he's an athletics director), income is 2.6 to 1, his credit score is 650 (he said he had some issues with Comcast when he sold the house, but he's clearing that).

I know many large tourist towns and cities have/are enacting regulations that may make STRs out of reach for a single investor or company.Still, I can't help but to think that properly placed and finished STRs aimed and marketed to select guests could make for nice long term holds.I.E...Homes near schools for families during visits for athletic, arts or cultural event or graduation.

That has served me in athletics, the military, school, and the traditional work place.

Now that we're ~7 years into the recovery, we've seen a ton of appreciation here in the Bay Area. 

The entity set up for each property bought can make it a separate shielding from asset recovery against the investor who owns many properties.

I know investors who operate "recovery houses" for recovering addicts and charge 5-10% per month on houses with little to no maintenance (there are ways).