They didn't like it at first, but they learned the hard (financial way) to conserve heat since they were now paying for it.Have you considered switching all of the units to electric baseboards?

There are a bunch of different figures associated with this decision, such as new interest rate, old interest rate, cash flow of new property etc, but I'm having a hard time getting my mind around how to analyze the decision mathematically.  

If you ask around, you likely know someone in CA investing out of state.If you evaluate a long term rental property from a micro view of let's say the Year 1 return, with interest rates where they are, and using conservative estimates for rent, you'll be hard pressed to find compelling cashflow without going into C or D class areas nationwide. 

It was hard to get work done! 

Most if not all of these properties require SIGNIFICANT cap ex rehabs and conventional financing won't touch them; you'd likely need to go the hard money route at 10-12%, 2 points, 12-18mon turn around.

If not that route then we look at hard money, maybe taking your rent roll and use factoring lender.

It's not hard, just takes a few minutes.Like I said above, I haven't been STR hosting for long.

You either make an expensive mistake and learn it in a hard way or study before you make mistakes.

Alot of unknowns as you don't have the ability to walk the property beforehand, but interesting process, and pretty good deals exist there.While the Trustee Sales are cash purchases, there are many hard money options that can turn over the funds in time for the 24 hour funding required to complete the purchase.If you are interested, let me know and I can go into more detail, as well as make some other suggestions for you to consider. 

Did you use a hard money loan for this?