With the economy in the condition it currently is, I think it is unlikely that you will find droves of homeowners in financial distress.It's worth a try (and by try I mean more than a couple houses on a single day), but should be a supplemental strategy, not your go-to.

In ten years, it will be worth the same as $748 today.The takeaway is that no matter how many properties you own in a city where rents do not outpace inflation, sooner or later you will be forced to get a job to supplement your declining rental income buying power.What causes prices and rents to rise or fall?

If it has shortfalls, supplement them with a spreadsheet or other tool. 

The idea was to diversify and supplement our retirement income.  

I probably wouldn't do a whole building of S8, but it is a nice supplement. 

All under 25 pounds and certain breeds restricted.But our biggest change is in the lease:we let them know that for any animal (note: not pet) the assumption will be 1) the unit is returned to a state where a person allergic to the animal would be able to rent the apartment and 2) a professional cleaning will be conducted at the landlords discretion and the tenants expense, up to and including wall wash, hi powered vacumn for dander, enzyme treatment, killz etc. 3) The expense will be taken out of the security deposit.We haven't had it tested in a dispute yet, but I think it keeps good pet owners careful, rather than prevents bad apples, but it also gives you the ability to do a very thorough job, which should work with most pet damage, horror stories aside.

Or are you looking to increase your cash flow to supplement/offset some of your income?

No...Umbrella Insurance is a supplemental policy to your property insurance that kicks in if the costs exceed that of the property insurance. 

I'm currently renting in Orange County, so my goals are to 1) look for a permanent residence to purchase and 2) start with 1-2 rental investments as additional assets to supplement my income.

Problem we ran into is: If she supplements her families living expenses, the state will withdraw any benefits they are currently receiving.