Since you’re in CA go for appreciation vs Cashflow .  

Hey John,I own 12 units in Detroit but currently live in California.

In CA I took a crash course with Sharon Butler and I passed first try with an 86%.

California is expensive as you noted.  

Watch the old classic "Pacific Heights" and you will never want to be a LTR landlord, at least in California lol. 

thanks for your time and help rent to retirement works directly with build to rent developers like us around the country once they are framed up. you are buying properties pretty much at market value but with a hand holding. you can work directly with a builder or directly with them. they are just an intermediary. they take 5% on what we make as a builder but have a large list of investors and a systemized approach to selling new builds. if you want to get a better deal I'd recommend directly contacting builders and building it yourself. fly to the market. spend 2 days, tour new builds, get a feeling for how it's going. if your builder isn't building multiple at a time then I wouldn't recommend working with them. rent to retirement is a well oiled and well run machine. they've had their ups and downs with dozens of transactions in florida but modified their process. they are well known and established and transparent. if you have a more specific market and feel confident in your ability to vet deals try it out. happy to talk more my info is in my signature. we work directly with them to sell new builds and no organization is perfect but I have good things to say about them as a builder and potential build to rent developer that sells build to rent triplexes and single family homes through them to end buyers in California like the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and San Diego 

The condo I'm selling in CA could sell for approximately $600k, and I was thinking of rolling that into 2 condo/townhomes valued at about $250k each, then doing DST for the remaining around $100 for the 1031.

Out-of-state investing makes the most sense for me—it’s impossible to cash flow anywhere near me, and moving wouldn’t make sense because I wouldn’t be able to earn the same wages or find the same kind of jobs.Before this purchase, I already owned two properties: a long-term rental outside Houston, Texas, and a short-term rental in the Sierras in California.

I have investors in California that only buy in Indiana and Ohio because there is a ton of inventory and the prices are great.

For example in Southern California many apartments do not come with refrigerators.