Take this advise with a grain of salt, I think you're only option is to get boots on the ground..

"I am a newbie so take this answer with a grain of salt, but........"

My partner is looking for a job in either Salt Lake or the Twin Falls area so we can move closer to the property in the next 3 months, and the plan is to find a Single Family home in need of help to live in and fix for a year, and hopefully find another a year later, rent the first out, and start growing one year at a time.

We are close to the ocean and the salt air is rough on vehicles. 

@Martin StevensMartin,I am not a lawyer and you need legal advice, so take all of this with a grain of salt.

And the negative gearing is never for any longer than 12 months and I always have a plan as to how I will stabilize the asset and create strong positive CF.Between the stocks and the negative gearing the game encourages speculation - we should all take this with a grain of salt when transferring the rationale to real life.

I don't buy in California, so, I might be a little jaded - so, take my advice with a grain of salt ;-)So, if you put down 20%, that's 55K or so.

In other words, based on the info that I have here (which isn't much, and I don't know the local market at all, so take with a grain of salt), this doesn't look like a good candidate as a rental property. 

Even the old salt investor types pay too much and under estimate.

Take this with a grain of salt, but the cashflow numbers just don't seem all that great to me.