I want to get into real estate investing, but my current 9-5 job is in San Diego and I am now faced with the facts that with a 2k rent + living costs... being financially free will not be attainable in the near future unless I make a fundamental change to reduce expenditures.  

If you are in the market for a long term buy and hold, keep looking and make a decision based on the fundamentals, not fear of what the market may do.

Yes, it is a real possibility that COVID-19 is not as deadly as once believed, but if the outcomes are tragic and a larger drain on our healthcare and economic systems in general then this remains a public health issue to be solved.The best course of action right now is everyone can write their governor and mayor and request their state/city procure this test and in large numbers (and yes, the test already exists).Regardless of how we open the country, how we function and how we do business will fundamentally change. 

Our current situation was caused by COVID-19 not a problem with the housing market fundamentals.

If workers that are able to work remotely are working remote for an extended period of time (or remote work is fundamentally changed in the future), does this impact housing and rental prices in the city? 

It's my guess this is more about optics than anything else, not to mention the fundamental underlying question of constitutionality. 

Fundamentals are strong and will most likely continue to be.

This recession is caused by a virus, and we're heading into it with very strong real estate fundamentals (at least in my market).

Personally, I feel this whole situation has brought me back to the fundamentals of real estate... it's a relationship business... including lending.

I found it fundamentally frustrating that when I found a potential investment, I'd then have to go to one website to get rent rates, then go to another to get property taxes, then go to another to get mortgage payment info, then punch all that information in to some spreadsheet instead of just having that information right there and then.After putting up with this for a while as a new investor, I decided enough is enough and I went ahead and created an app called IRES that not only allows you to search for properties and list them; the results also give you the following:Estimated Rent1% ruleCap RateRent/CostCOC (cash on cash)DSCR (debt service coverage ratio)NOIP&IInsuranceProperty TaxesHOA FeesHere is a screenshot of what you'd see:So with all that said, you can download the FREE version for Android here (Still working on the paid version):https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?