Under such conditions, you want the effort and expense of the value add to produce as much added value as possible and this virtually always will occur in the high cost market. 

That's not a profit producing activity for a Broker / Property Manager as 99% are tire kickers and the ones who will buy will buy without going on a date with you. 

Each strategy produces slightly different rent rates.

However, from what I’ve observed, it’s still not enough to produce meaningful cash flow.

Case Shiller indicates no US location has produced a better return than San Fran, LA, or San Diego for this century.  

So far this has produced great results for me.

Then I wrote 3 books, became the person in charge of education in my REI and had to produce presentations every month (at least 2) for it, and before I knew it,...It's not as hard as you think, at least it was for me. 

Most lenders sell their loans out.Nobody wants a loan where the asset is underwater every month.The real question is, why is a property worth over $1M only producing $4,000/mo.You should consider raising rents as this seems significantly below market.

@Michelle Reid Both LTR and STR strategies are viable and currently producing good results in the current market, which isn't easy to find everywhere else.

Some of our deals produce out size returns, but most are in the mid teens.