With the fires in CA, you can expect materials and contractors to become even more expensive. 

If you need to, it may be worth it to just create a website - its really not that expensive to get a basic one from fiverr

This is after covering all expenses and setting aside a certain amount for reserves to cover future expenses like capex or vacancy. 

Expenses for initial repairs before renting are usually capitalized and depreciated.

It's an estimated cash on cash return given current rental rates subtract expenses assuming 7% interest rate, 10% management fee, 5% repairs, 5% capex and other expenses like mortgage, insurance, tax. it's a estimate to tell you what properties to analyze vs ignoreyou can see the are pockets of negative returns as well as pockets of positive return. this is to supplement the data @Devin Conley provided

@Patricia Andriolo-BullStessa is an excellent platform for tracking income and expenses for investors; it is user-friendly.

And you can definitely pay off your home faster if you focus on running all of your expenses through it and watch your expenses. 

Cheap properties look good on paper but rarely perform as well as more expensive properties.

As noted above, up to 50% of gross rental income normally gets eaten up by expenses (taxes, management fees, utilities, landscaping, repairs, capex, etc).

Gentrification follows the formula of cheap rent+ east commute to downtown + open vacant space for restaurants and bars + proximity to another gentrified neighborhood that is getting to expensive so people expand their search to surrounding.