To understand that, talk to a local RE attorney who knows of that judge who can tell you how s/he is likely to react in your strategy, no one on the internet can tell you what is acceptable locally.I was interviewing an attorney in NC for a REI Student of mine recently, and I wanted to know what the local attitude of lease with option was locally in the Raliegh area.She said the local attitude was the judges hated lease options there, and the local laws were not conducive to evicting non paying lease w option tenants, and it was pro tenant, anti landlord - seller. 

The bad is the city has an anti STR mindset with recently enacted lottery and quotas.  

The great thing about Palo Alto etc. is a high concentration of very high paying jobs and smart people and a lot of NIMBY anti development activism.

@David Krulac , for your "never buy a property with either hot water or steam heat" rule have you ever used anti-freeze in the system?

We hired a pro water remediation company and asked them to remove dry wall, base boards, carpet, and drop fans, dehumidifier equipment, as well as apply any anti-microbial disinfectant, etc.

Its like saying an ant is going to lift a car. 

If contractors itemize an invoice, you must resort to the anti-abuse rule 1.263(a)-1(f)(6) which forces you to aggregate contractor's itemized invoice into specific jobs and apply the aggregate total to the $2,500 threshold. 4.

There's also rent control and a lot of anti-landlord sentiment.

When 9/10 items on the agenda are ANTI-short term rental items, that should tell you something.

Sorry to be a downer but the general knowledge are that cities are notoriously anti-progress or new things thus most would bet you can't build in front.