Suggest you go to a landlord bootcamp the local landlord groups put on (i learned so much , very much worth the $100 ) and read this. https://www.osbar.org/public/legalinfo/tenant.html  Also fwiw I have been called several times by, I assume,  HUD or folks fishing for landlords to file complaints against , so highly suggest becoming very familiar with tenant/land laws

For land/lot properties listed in the MLS by an agent but not listed in the public records who owns the land?

That is public record.

You are spot on with your perception of California.

But you can never say never...especially with these polls which are not exactly representative of the voting public (Early polls also indicated a much different result with our presidential elections!).

This sounds like the price is too high or they have found a better deals after closer look.It really depends on many factors, like what is the exact location, what is the shape of the lot, how is subdivided,  how is it accessed, how far are the closes utilities, are those private / public, is there any public access, are the access sufficient or do you have to build a new roads etc. 

This is the publication from the IRS (a bit dense for my taste): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/reg-107892-18.pdf

I use pacer.gov to search court cases, which is very useful.  I was wondering what other sites you guys use for screening tenants before paying for credit and backround checks. 

@Jim Watkins 1) don’t advertise in a public forum that you don’t declare your income 2) go legit, start declaring 3) run your credit report and talk to lenders, you don’t know until you try

Due to the number and magnitude of the claims a CRE clients of mine has suggested an attorney who will coordinate w/ their public adjusters on my behalf.