Talk with the neighbors and find the house burned down and then the lot cleared. 

If you want to find people who will try to help you lose your money, telling them how much money you have and where you will be is a good way to start.You are limiting yourself way too much by focusing on LA, but with $2 million to burn you could likely find some good cash flow if you are paying cash, but you don't sound like the management type just from this.

But I also agree that there are some things you might want to pay to have someone else do so you don't end up burning yourself out.I've been doing this 9 years now?  

I have seen plenty of investors getting burned buying homes in very attractive locations only to find out it is not zoned for STR and ending up losing $$ getting rid of the property.

You're getting OJT right now, but you're about to get burned very badly in a very tenant friendly environment if you don't get the help you need WHILE you're learning.

He got burned in that particular market as he said tenants were intentionally breaking things & abusing the system so as to get out of paying any rent.

If you search these forums you will find countless syndication investors burned by paused redemptions, loss of most or all of their principal, investment promoters disappearing, etc.

This puts the seller in a much worse situation than they started, and this burns a lot of people.

Replacement cost approach: Used for things like insurance to determine how much insurance you need if for example the house burns down and needs to be re-built. 2.