(A tenant will make sure he has an extra key) If a tenant contacts you after hours to handle an emergency, make it clear in your lease what an emergency is (burst pipe indoors, giant crack in a load bearing wall, tree limb crashes through the bedroom window, etc.).Most of all, keep the relationship professional, friendly but businesslike.

You have to know which neighborhoods and property types have the highest potential for appreciation given changing demographics and the underlying health of the local economy.I have a feeling that giant sucking sound of dollars flowing out of California will meet with disappointment ...

Which is like a giant credit card for your house.

The potential profit is more than just a great income, but also it is fast, no contingencies, all cash with all concerned making a reasonable profit.Too many investors want the Big Home Run – the giant profit – NO – not me – I’d rather take a smaller profit but do many deals – at the end of the day the little profit on many deals is my HOME RUN!

IANAL, but I assume we are hoping/praying that no one sues or dies during that day that it's not in the LLC.In places like Oakland or Berkeley with giant transfer taxes, there's some extra stuff you need to do that a lender and/or escrow officer local to you can talk about, to dodge that punitive transfer tax.There are endless threads already on BP about the possible, but very unlikely, consequences of doing this.

I am in the same boat as you when it comes to private listing SEARCH sites that are trying to go head-to-head with giants like Zillow. 

Be careful though, you're gonna have every Tom, Dick and Harry attempting to have you purchase their training, course, or consultation, so be sure to perform due diligence before making decisions.

So it's a little different than the boom/busy potential of a place like Greenbrier when fracking came and has largely left.Anyway, no giant conclusions, just food for thought.

I recommend participating in the monthly CARPOA meetings held at the Camp Hill Giant on Trindle Road. 

However, it's interesting to hear that it would potentially be a poor investment.My main goal is to house hack a property that will pay for itself through rental income while I occupy a small portion of the property (e.g. the top floor of the second unit that I would build).I got a quote from "Giant Shipping Container" homes for $250k for a 2,000 sq foot, three story structure that may be a decent option for the second unit.Do you recommend I that I instead build a large addition onto the existing home to maximize potential rental income and simply design the addition to allow for a separate living space for my wife and I to feel like we have our own lives compared to the renters on the other side of the wall?