The time spent in a broker's office—even with paying a desk fee—is time well spent, since most brokers have their finger on the pulse of the communities they do business in.

I'm on the way to getting my first MFR (fingers crossed) and am currently starting attorney review.

Cash businesses are notorious for partners having sticky fingers.  

Someone will have to pry my dead lifeless fingers from mine at the moment.

Crossing my fingers it stays that way! 

See my strategy requires that I keep my finger on the pulse of the city where I invest.  

Fingers crossed. 

I now understand this won't work and typically will not work on homes with higher Equity value I'll continue my search and keep my fingers crossed thanks!! 

While viewing the occupied units we didn't come across anything out of the ordinary so fingers crossed it'll be a smooth transition. 

With that being said, I would recommend investing locally. 1) So you have your finger on the pulse w/ whats going on w/ your property, and you don't have to hire a PM at first unnecessarily. 2) If you see yourself staying in San Diego for the foreseeable future, it's an incredible long term play. 3) If you have the opportunity to leverage debt (less money down) for an owner occupied property I'd recommend taking advantage of that to start building your portfolio.