Rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater, I would encourage you and other investors to arm yourself with the knowledge that will enable you to use the insurance tool well.

During that year oregon passed a bill that enabled state wide rent control.

DO NOT have any built in tax-shield (no depreciation, no mortgage interest deduction, no property tax deduction, etc.) and therefore benefit most from being invested in through a Roth IRA.Putting it all together, a Self-Directed Roth IRA for tax lien, private lending, notes, etc. may be ideal, giving  you all the tax benefits of a Roth IRA and enabling you to get hands-on real estate experience.

I'm hoping the cash out refi was a good idea - but it enabled me to buy a great place in the Bay area.  

That is precisely what adverse possession laws are designed to enable.  

But I think the bottom line in helping me with my RE career is that my degree has allowed me to earn a comfortable salary which enabled me to get started in investing in RE.

This enables the ‘market’ to return the 10.6%.Now mutual fund managers try to beat that and some do, occasionally.

Technology has enabled communication with a remote CPA through phone calls, emails, skype etc.

I'd instead point these people to assumable mortgages, for example, where they take on the debt as their own, legally, and as an established part of the specific loan products (VA and FHA) that have protocols in place to enable assumption.I believe that many investors are now confusing the concept of "wealth without cash" or "Low and No Money Down" as meaning that all the advanced creative financing strategies apply to investors who are literally broke.

I had the site built in Wordpress using the Elementor framework and then used the OwnerRez Wordpress plugin, widgets and short codes to enable bookings and calendar display.