The tenant supposedly had complained for months to the property manager that the furnace was not working.

I know that RTR positions themselves as “turnkey” but the reality is that they are more of a hybrid model - they set you up with everything you need and facilitate relationships with lenders, insurance, property managers, and so forth - but they are not the actual service providers.

You are definitely going to want to get a lawyer and as soon as possible.This will sound harsh.In your story, you have made a number of very poor decisions about how you purchased and managed this property. 

Even if you break even, you will lose money every month it sits vacant, when you need repairs, property management, etc.

Getting a rental license as an out-of-state investor is doable, but you’ll need to manage inspections and compliance.

We manage several hundred rental properties throughout the San Diego market and I found your post very interesting. 

Would love feedback from anyone with personal investing and/or property management experience in these cities.

.- I would highly suggest you plan on using a property management company.

. $215k is the offer that is falling through.It's not something we could self manage.

Their pro formas felt optimistic with providing 6% annual appreciation and property management that is only about 6% of rent so I take it with a grain of salt (they offer their own property management services but it has terrible reviews on Yelp so I would probably go with someone else).