Lastly, don't buy into all the anti-NYS stuff.

I get to have them again now that I'm completely off of the anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication I was taking just so I could keep going to that old job of mine.

You would think the rules would be so anti LL that buyers would dry up, prices would fall, and returns would go up until the pricing was such that it was wroth the risk.But instead, the prices are high, returns are low, and you have to deal with an unfriendly government.   

We are thinking of getting out of the rental business as we feel the anti landlord policy trends will continue, hope im wrong. 

Sounds like some of us Jersey Landlords should come in and take over for those who can’t swing a profit ;)We have lived under an anti- eviction statute that calls for cause, we cannot refuse a qualified section 8 and many of our municipalities rent control is limited to just the CPI (sometimes in the negative!)

However the permitting costs, time involved, and (this being in seattle) the extreme anti-landlord policies in place there means I have little incentive to do so.   

It was just no credit history because they were anti-debt kind of people. 

If the politics at the location where you want to invest in has a pro-tenant/anti-landlord political leaning, then you should think very hard about investing there as such locations only get harder and harder for landlords as these type of laws usually get worse, not better over time. 

(You confirmed something that has been floating in my mind for sometime now.)I often read about all these "creative" options and hustler-approaches to finding a "deal" but often times the things I find are in such poor quality that any sort of rehab (something I too am not eager to do as I have a job) would make it more expensive to buy.I do wonder though, maybe it's just our market, at least in Northern California, comprised of a bunch of angry, anti-government, VC-money-dreaming techies (looks in mirror, haha) so perhaps the midwest reacts better to those letters. 

I'm not trying to get into a pissing contest with you because I know you're very passionate in your anti-California views since you've sold everything here and relocated to Arizona (or maybe it's the other way around).