I am in Los Angeles County, CA and I need to figure out if running all the house's plumbing external to the house is up to code.  

When you replaced the hot water heater, did you opt for a high-efficiency heater with external ventilation and exhaust?  

I told him most of my money is in real estate investments, because I control the investment and don’t have to worry about external forces affecting the performance of my apartments.

Do you know if the landlord has to pay for water or electricity for common areas or external lighting?  

I think the trend will swing back from renting and group psychology about "rising real estate values" will kick in just as it did 10-15 years ago.Yes I think we should keep buying to get more pieces on the board (boats in the water to rise), but completely disregard any potential appreciation both in terms of our return calculations and psychologically (in other words, don't get caught up in the coming "real estate boom" psychology and buy marginal properties or cash flow negative properties expecting appreciation).That may mean doing fewer deals but it's a price I'm personally willing to pay.There are also some broader economic issues which could throw in some systemic risk and gum up the works, such as Russia-Ukraine, the Chinese economy, the European economy (and some of its weaker members like Greece), etc.So in my mind I think there are three possible scenarios: 1) 1/3 likely to have steady good growth in RE values (scenario of U.S. economy continuing to do reasonably well but little/tepid real wage growth), 2) 1/3 likely to have another boom (scenario of U.S. economy doing very well and finally having real wage growth for the first time in a long time), and 3) 1/3 likely to have the train get derailed by external factors such as the world economy, some kind of war, etc.In all of those scenarios it seems to me that good, cash flowing properties will be good to have.

No amenities here, just landscaping and external repairs so hopefully HOA rates won't increase a lot.

As an example for those of us external to the U.S.A., having our data stored at a data centre in the U.S.A. subjects it to the Patriot Act and (typically) privacy laws that are weaker than our countries of origin.

Although, I think I did overpay on my property a bit too much because I was eager to secure my first property and some other external factors.

Once you have them, buy an external hard drive, and back it up on there and on the cloud, a la DropBox.3) For your property, work with an agent/get MLS access so you can nail down the Days on Market for your kind of 3/2 and the solid comps.

This can be the hard drive in your laptop/PC, an external hard drive, a flash drive, or whatever, just as long as you can hold it in your own two hands.