There is plenty of cash and people in LA market looking for distressed properties to flip - how will you avoid over-paying and making the right decisions to capture $200k gross?

Half the problem is people not reading the FAQ and other agreements.

The people that will suffer the most from a bad economy will be renters.

I have another townhome under contract closing at the beginning of march and now I’m worried that people aren’t renting. 

Great insurance agent, great realtor, great lender, great attorney, great title people great trades and others.A great realtor can save you time, money, frustrations, headaches, and keep you out of a lot of trouble. 

Real estate is still a people business.

Having a judge or jury decide the case is considered something like going to the casino from what I've been told by attorneys.That is the risk to the landlord in having a bad PM that does people wrong.

Going over maps of known repairs with contractors showed that there were a few houses where people tried to have piers installed and ran out of money before hitting stable soil, others in the hyper local area did have to go to 100+ ft.  

I would argue that many people do not know they are paying $1000 under market value. 

They probably actually have less debt than most other people, so it is easier for them to make rent payments.The vast majority of bankruptcies are medically related.They have been "through the system" and they don't want to go through that again.