To thrive in real estate investing, you must maintain a firm grip on your finances.

I too live in Marin, and feel it is a solid long term market for apprecaition, and utilizing the power of principle reduction.When it comes to refinancing, figure out what the loan costs will be, then divide that buy the monthly savings with the new loan in order to determine how long you have to maintain that loan to break even. 

I've been looking at NC and GA recently, trying to find some entry level and easy to maintain property, but there are too many areas and it's really hard to narrow down.

California maintains a “List of Approved Surplus Line Insurers (LASLI).”

Since I undertake a number of projects with passive partners who maintain ownership interest in the LLC, I often have to negotiate this with the banks ahead of time as I customarily solely guarantee the debt and that's my LP's expectation.

Finding, developing and maintaining a 'brand' is hard and time consuming work.Let me turn the question around; As a seller, why should someone pick one agent over another.

No you won't benefit from the tenant paying down your mortgage or the house appreciating, but you also won't have to deal with tenants, maintaining the home, etc.

Conversely, if new houses are being built frequently, older properties may struggle to maintain their value.Property taxes also play a significant role.

Something like: Tenant will maintain interior temperature of unit at a minimum of 50 degrees.

I actively put forth effort to maintain leverage.