It was like pulling teeth half the time.

Hello Everyone,I saw this post and wanted to put my 2 cents in...First - here are my credentials - I have been in the vacation rental industry for abut 20 years now and have started, built and sold multiple vacation rental companies during this time frame and have dealt with hundreds of properties and hundreds of thousands of reservations.Let me start by addressing Airdna - I have looked at it couple of times and would not recommend it to anyone who is serious about investing - their numbers a lot of time make no sense whatsoever.

Basically, umbrella insurance covers anything over and above front-line policies, but without these front-line policies, it's possible umbrella won't be in effect - The umbrella policies I have won't cover workers comp type claims, especially if I don't have a front-line workers comp policy in place While an umbrella policy might help you, you want to ensure that you're not just throwing money out for a policy that offers absolutely no protection whatsoever because you don't have other coverages in place.

Sure you can calculate this and utilize it in your search for rentals, but the bank isn't going to care whatsoever about your 4 unit CAP rate. 

Obviously this is subject to change based on the micro market that you live in which I have no education on whatsoever.

Doable and easy are two very different things and I firmly believe that most people getting started are best off, even in an expensive market, doing some kind of a small multi-unit live in rental to cut their teeth.

Here in Florida, we can not turn off service whatsoever on an occupied property, and I’m sure california is the same.

I once financed three units for a certain NFL draft pick (#1 overall) down here, and that was like pulling teeth. 

The people that do it are getting by on the skin of their teeth and if the market winds shift against you, you'll be up a creek without a paddle.

And, as you and others have said, you're now at big risk of holding open a place with no leverage whatsoever and if they pull out, you have no practical recourse and are likely out a month or more of that $3,000 monthly rent while you try to get someone else in.