This isn't 2011-2013 days but many people are stuck in that time period STILL.As I finish my licensing study, I'm very grateful I chose this route as opposed to being a one trick pony.Wholesalers did themselves in by their method of operating.  

Quote from @Jesse Valdez: When operating a business, it pays to know the laws.In most states, guests staying fewer than 30 days can be removed by police for failure to pay rent or obey the rules.

@Jay Hinrichs exactly the risk is even more than traditional development and the profit is actually less with more operational headaches.

It also is helpful to have a California LLC in case you ever sell that property and move into another state so that you do not need to form a new LLC altogether with new operating agreement, just re-register in the new state as a new foreign LLC.

If your property management company is good and has built an internal maintenance team which has set rates and had strong relationship relationships with licensed contractor which should keep costs in control, you should never need to shop contractors on your own I wouldn't think.So in short, our policy is give us your preferred contractors upfront if you have them, but then we work all tickets to resolution including dispatch, and payment of invoices.This is of course for operational expenses.  

It sounds like you may be a better fit for a smaller operation that still offers guided tours.

My suggestion is to continue being active on BP, get out to some networking events and seminars and also educate yourself through books and podcasts. 

Or is it better to capture all the rental income while continuing to pay my current rent at $500/month?

Operating in an industry where "we track time," I can offer a few hopefully helpful tips:1.

We are familiar with several operators, but we chose to work with AJ Osborne at Cedar Creek Capital.