And remember getting in is just the 1st expense, it will not be the last by any stretch of the imagination. 

But if you are looking to stretch the budget, #3 is the way too go!

I think the cleaner may just be stretched too thin and increasing the price is their way of pushing me out of their cleaning rotation?

cap rate: 5.5% (Even this is probably stretching it as many buildings are ~5% now)vacancy: 4% repair and maintenance: 5% (is this insufficient for older buildings? 

It's hurt smaller landlords who over-stretched themselves and thought they could buy that extra property and pay more than what it's worth, without doing the numbers and accounting for less monthly rent (10% decrease).

My biggest regret is not buying something a little bigger on the first one - Wish i would have bought more sqft and more bedrooms and stretched by budget a little bit but my agent was greedy and didn't really educate me at all about how the housing market worked and just wanted a quick sale. 

So my question is, being a young guy should I play the slow game and make do with the deals that I come across locally in California (MCOL, about 300-400k per single family home where I live) or do I take my money out of state and invest in a market with better cashflow and where my 100k will stretch a lot further?

Disney will turn things around as time goes on.Now spending 2m on a property might be a stretch at this time.

Are there ever any long stretches that you are in the states? 

LVP seems easy when you have long stretches but getting under/around door jambs etc can be frustratingly slow.