I have some concrete pads in the back of some of my homes, and I have added Costco type storage units to rent it out.

Anyone can buy a stable senior income fund like FLBL with the click of a mouse and no liquidity or complexity issues. 

To be honest, I´m in the Maintenance & Construction for corporate businesses for some US companies in Mexico and we do some Real Estate down here also, but it´s way much different than the US, so I have much to learn from a lot of people around here and as @Julio Gonzalez, I think this is pretty much the right pad and place to start and to break my fears to start all over again from scratchAlso, I´ld like to hear more from @Justin Brickman why he voted for his city, pros and cons, it will help to read from a local...As I said before, thank you all guys for taking the time to write in this post and share some experienceDo you plan to owner occupy. $40k will not get you a non owner occupied San Diego property unless you find some unlikely alternate financing.

It is easy for people to download fake W2s, ESA paperwork, etc, with a few mouse clicks and a credit card. 

How's that mouse doing now?

I focus almost 100% on my pad ready land cost to come up with profitable deals. 20% of gross development value is the most I will pay for land.

.- Tenant submitted a work order for low water pressure in 2 bathrooms- Tenant submitted a work order because the garage door doesn't close all the way and left a 2-3 inch gap at the bottom- Owner initially refused to address either work order- Owner demanding the tenants place furniture pads on each piece of furniture- Owner calling multiple times to speak through the work orders, asking when they've been scheduled, calling a couple days later requesting the invoices- Owner calling because they want to access their storage in the basement so they can remove several pieces of furniture being stored- Owner now emailing requesting multiple property inspections throughout the lease cycle- Owner questioning my experience and relative PM knowledge because I'm not following up with her in a timely manner (the following day after the work order)Keep in mind, this is 2 weeks after the tenants had moved in and the tenants are very happy in the home.This is something we see on a regular basis.

Indeed, you can get higher returns than that in the stock market at the click of a mouse and, when investing internationally, you'd typically want a higher return than you can get domestically or in the stock market, unless you're mainly looking for diversification or parking your money.On another unrelated note, I love your latest podcast episode.

Pad plan.

If, however, there are any gaps at all in any of the above items, even a gap so small a mouse can squeeze through, that tenant will exploit it and your life just became a 7th Level of Dante's Inferno.....:)