Given your concerns about California’s high prices and tenant laws, exploring out-of-state markets is a great idea, especially for rookie landlords.Oklahoma is worth considering!

It only happened once, so you have no evidence that this is anything but an honest mistake that's been corrected.The bigger concern is the 583 credit score, because it shows a pattern of financial mismanagement.

I also have the text logs, since I stopped talking to him on the phone so that we would have a record of his communication with us concerning the rent.  

So we didn't have an option, we were a bit concerned that guests would want Cable TV, but we couldn't do anything about it.

When I'm investing in trust deeds - my primary concern is the safety of the principal.

Requesting to screen tenants again might raise concerns.

Money laundering is a big concern and needs to be addressed. 

They look like they are sitting on wooden piers and not on a slab or perimeter foundation.As far as lenders are concerned, that could impact the financing.

-TylerTyler, that would concern me.

 - a study on rent cost compared to ownership cost shows that virtually every large city market it is initially cheaper to rent than own (I believe is was cheaper to went in 97 of the largest 100 markets)Miami and Florida have extra concerns:- insurance difficulties have resulted in large increase in insurance costs.