We have a clause in our lease that plumbing clogs not caused by mechanical/material defects in the plumbing will be charged to the tenant, and if your lease doesn't have similar I would recommend such a clause.

How would you advertise or market it?

many houses in the midwest, for example, are very old and need major rehabs.i personally think out of state investing is more difficult than advertised, and much more difficult in the current investing environment, with: prices high; interest rates high; tremendous demand for inventory, by both investors and retail buyers; and good PMs, contractors, etc. booked up.here's a really thoughtful thread with the experience of another CA investor and lots of different responses:https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/1215726-break...and here are some threads about how it can very easily go wrong:https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/1159104-overl...https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/963/topics/1195280-expe...https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/1160450-run-i...https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/48/topics/1137397-balti...finally, you also said you "don't have a lot of money to start with." 

One PM company I dealt with back in San Diego... thankfully not in OC... buried costs for advertising and re-leasing in their contracts.

Hey Chris, a few thoughts here.Considering that office is not attached to the house, I wouldn’t add any footage to the total home square footage; however, you could advertise that office space and amount of footage and amenities in your remarks.If you’re a Realtor or are using one for the sale, your local MLS may have fields dedicated to additional footage for other buildings on the property, such as ADU’s.The other point is that typically, perhaps depending upon location, a space needs to have heating to count in the square footage, which this office doesn’t have if I understand correctly.Consider contacting an appraiser to inquire about how they would handle this space on an appraisal, or a Realtor.

We have very limited controls, but the advertisers seem to always find new creative ways to get around the rules we impose. 

They took on more projects than they can handle just as a number of market variables turned against them: materials costs and availability and staffing, both back office and subs, just to name a couple.

If it's so great, then why the deceptive advertising/marketing tactics? 

It is because material costs on most things do not vary by location.  

It's not a great time to do a first flip with high labor costs, high materials costs, high property costs, and high rates.