The other overwhelming thing is just nailing down which market. 

Years go by and eventually Grandpa gets tired of fixing porches, nailing gutters and steam cleaning carpets that 'have a couple more years in them. 

Probably this. california department of Real estate has already nailed two agents for raising rents above price gouging thresholds.. 10k fine plus who knows what kind of license discipline.

Ben nailed it.

One of these restrictions is a cap on how much income we can require (max 2 or 2.5 times rent depending on the rental rate).

Whatever market you choose, be sure to nail down your buy box.

I think if you can nail that down you will be able to find a market easier.As a buy and hold investor some of the things that were important to me when deciding on a market were landlord tenant laws, price to rent ratio, housing demand, ability to build a team, large population 500K plus, multi-family availability and some other factors.take the process step by step and you will be fine. 

During this time, tenant complained of cross contamination, claims got nail in foot while in kitchen - all the same time accessing these areas to take pictures etc.

need to put some sort of cap on utilities in your next leases.

There’s huge retal income potential if you nail that balance between improvements that wow tenants and improvements that merely look fancy but don’t justify higher rents.I’d also keep an eye on how your high end plan fits the local demand.