It will contribute to the importance of insurance (and contracts).I leased a Panama City, Florida, bay front fixer from a man that lived/worked out of the country.

You will find a TON of awesome people here on the forums representing our city who are willing to help you along your journey.My biggest suggestion would be to find some local meetups (https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/1211616-virt...) and introduce yourself to the host.

Rentals don't make sense in my city and the competition for value add is insane.

I want to use the equity in my CA home for the downpayment"me: "gasp" there was very popular post a few years back and LA based investor took out a large HELOC on their personal residence so they could buy 8 units in a mid west city.. that he admitted were D class and on paper the cash flow was huge etc etc.. 

While cities, as a whole, are also able to change rules, typically those take far more time, and allow for more people to share input first.  

The tenant is paying their portion of the rent (the majority is coming from city) but the tenant has been difficult to deal with and I'd like to find an new tenant once their lease is up.

On Monday, we presented our 253-unit townhome Planned Unit Development (PUD) to the City Commission and received a favorable 4/5 vote!

Cities like Cleveland and Chicago have done really well.

I’m also located in Rochester New York.

Go to the RPA Bootcamp, the Milwaukee landlord training, join the Brew City FB group...As far as your job: focus on income and savings.