Rob, A similar incident happened in a nearby city, Hayward, several years ago.

Downtown has some closed bars and surrounded by nearby low income.., some good martini bars (oak and olive) moving into downtown bringing the higher end clients, but still boarded up buildings here and there....

With Cummins engine & the Military base nearby.

The tenant ended up moving into another house I had nearby that just had a vacancy.

These are nearby but in different towns, different agents.How should I proceed scouting for NorCal - east bay deals?

When I look in the mirror the only person I see IS myself (unless my wife or daughter are nearby) - who do you see?

The farm sat vacant for 2 years before we were able to fill it ourselves from CraigsList postings in nearby metro areas (DC & Baltimore--about 2 hours away).Interestingly, the tenant we found was from another rural area in WV who had a unique story and has turned out to be great.  

I am planning on using this as a learning experience, and I plan to instead invest in a nearby town in the future with lower home prices and higher cash flow opportunity.I am a real estate agent who has been in the business about a year.

I'm currently working on 3 spec builds and I'm looking at purchasing a few near by properties to most likely rent for a year or two before havering them demolished and build on the lots.  

If the numbers work out near to what @Daniel Miller  had stated, it would completely replace my current J.O.B. income in just a few years.The building is made of brick and is 98 years old, there is plenty of on street parking and parking lots nearby as well as the spaces included.