.- Land price- we did look at the Beach, but we went inland to the San Ignacio/Santa Elena/Spanish Lookout area. 

I recommend looking into the inland empire, there are still markets within the IE that you can tap into at a lower entry point, compared to LA or Orange County.

What worries me is that it is a bit far from "central Irvine", definitely a bit more inland and it is a good 30 minute drive to beach cities so I'm afraid that may be a determinant on its future value.

The distance inland is less a factor than its elevation.

Now I'm seeing interest in land and while everyone is still chasing SFRs for at a continually compressing cap rate a lot of commercial deals are not being noticed.

So if i have to worry about a tenent that will break into my part of the house how can i get into rental biz and trust any tenants of any house i rent out.R2 how do you sleep at night knowing that in your huge empire of apartment buildings theres probably someone cooking oil from the weed they grew...down the hall is the ex con smoking crack and possibly burning your whole future.If i cant trust the tenent i bring into a basement suite i think i better think twice about getting involved in rental part of REI.Maybe rehabs are the better way less human factor

You could build an empire with that kind of start.Good Luck,NavyDoc

Seeing as I plan to be a live in land lord, so I would definitely have the time to clean up, and oversee the transition.

After 10 years of flipping houses I can say it's time for me to start building my rental empire.

I spend a lot of time searching the Inland Empire so it would be great to learn from and work with someone locally.