I purchased both as a package and for the next six years enjoyed great cash flow as I paid the tax on the house lot annually at about half of what it should have been and neglected to pay anything on the tennis court lot.  

REI is pay to play. 

Most of the buyers are just regular folks looking for a home, so they are not at all thinking about cap rates. 

for folks in So cal  I think Vegas is a great choice   1. you can drive there   keep in mind flying to other parts of the country to check on property is going to eat up 1 months rent if you go annually.2.

Yes, the government pays the Section 8 rent timely, but more and more tenants are having to pay a portion of their rent.

If you are taking the tax write off, you are acknowledging you are paying the debt.

While some folks may not change the way they underwrite from one type of property to another, what specific property are you interested in, SF, 2-4 MF, or 5+ MF? 

You might find it useful to attend a meetup or two just to learn how other folks got their start into the industry :) I host a small/intimate meetup once a month in LIC, check it out here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/1214850-meet...

When in reality, what you see 2023-fwd is reversion to the mean, and folks thought 2010-2020 was the mean.With such a high barrier of entry, the one's on the sidelines aren't really on the sidelines.

If you want to rent the place, it might be for a lot less than a year or two ago, simply because the number of folks looking for a large cabin hasn't kept up with the increasing supply.