I took a few years out of work to take care and spend time with a family member whp passed, so I have only been working for a year now.

My thinking is this:1) Spend your money making the unit nicer, not investing in machines that will need service calls.

They aren't spending their own money, so they are less likely to take care of the rental or follow rules.

If you are looking for property in San Diego that is going to have good initial cash flow, you are going to either have to identify an obscure value add or expect to spend a lot of time and effort to find good off market purchase (most off market offers are not great). 

Considering the owner is currently distressed (not wanting to spend more to fix it up for listing on the MLS), I may be able to make it work at a reasonable price point.

My own personal experience is that a huge stressor has been lifted since I've stopped spending hours looking for and analyzing deals and my index funds/stocks are doing well (just hope it doesn't decline in value when retire from my W2 job). 

LOVED it, I'm heading to Indy next month and will spend an entire month there getting to know the areas and building a team.

I'd spend maybe ~$60k of that money.

You need comparable sales BEFORE you spend $175 or the appraisal will come low to your expectations.

The airport had the buildings (from when federal gov turned the land over to the Airport Authority after WW2.) and allowed the current "owner" to spend a few $M improving the buildings.