Usually what I do is tell them the house is now gone if I've selected someone else. 

Both of these are niches that only select banks/lenders specialize with.

I took out a loan for a pool to make me feel better but only ended up with a creepy old lady for a neighbor that would open the shades anytime I’d get in the pool.

However, California may not be the most favorable state for investment due to various reasons such as rent control, anti-landlord legislation, high costs, and high taxes.In this post, I will provide a straightforward process for selecting a city where:Rents outpace inflation: Inflation consistently erodes the purchasing power of a fixed amount of money.

Ill shoot you a DM I know a great broker there that can help in home selection and contract negotiation, but cannot improve the ROI if it simply isn't there

First, whether you are renting or selling these are two rooms sellers and tenants place greater emphasis on when selecting their housing.

To avoid going through the same poor experience, keep reading.Even if someone gives you a referral here, do NOT make the mistake of assuming that the PMC will meet your expectations, just because they met the expectations of the referral source.In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

The difficulty was not finding properties that would make money, it was selecting the property that would make the most money.  

On average, the profits from such a strategy might be higher in Boulder than all but a select few markets in the country (maybe certain parts of SoCal offer slightly better opportunities?). 

You have to be quite selective and in some cases make some changes to the property to make it cashflow (ie add a garage, renovations etc).