Also covid was in full swing which caused all kinds of craziness in the real estate market.

You’d be more likely to get away without parking for tenants but even then, what kind of tenant are you going to attract?

They'll want all the money spent on the main house, lenders kind of ignore ADUs it's weird. 

while I totally understand the frustration especially purchasing what was supposed to be a new and ready to go asset, but these things are pretty common so don't feel to discouraged. 

.- You can look into call kinds of economic growth and financial indicators as well to help narrow the list.- I've also heard of people choosing a market because the team they could put together in that market was the best team they found

Once you've thought a bit about what your ideal wholistic investment portfolio looks like, if you decide that you want some kind of more active real estate investing in the mix, I cannot recommend more getting Start with Strategy by Dave Meyer and the accompanying workbook The Strategy Planner.

It's kind of disconcerting when I can only raise rents by 5% but insurance is increasing by 10% to 15% per year. 

Of course, I could just be overly concerned and this is just a kind ol' investor trying to pay it forward.

The ability to borrow the right kind of money at the right time.

The profile of seller who uses a wholesaler is commonly anti-broker.