My instinct tells me to NEVER pay more for a property than Tax assessment (mainly because there are oodles of properties available for LESS than Tax assessment - then you can apply for a lower assessment later if that unduly affects your outgoings).  

Hi @Wilhelm Nothnagel As someone who lives in SF, is an out of state RE investor, and has two kids in SFUSD public schools, here are a couple of thoughts from my perspective:1) If you choose to live in SF, you can find a good public school, especially an elementary school, if you don't just look for the "top-rated" schools but get out, go on school tours, and talk to parents who send their children to those schools.

I would think the RE agent has to be much more outgoing/social/marketing oriented?

Lazy investors look for an easy way out. Go

Lender's must ensure that there is sufficient cash flow to an owner, if there isn't, the probability of a borrower bailing out goes up, OTH, the owner's cash flow beyond a level that keeps the borrower in the game isn't the goal of any lender.

It is okay to charge an administrative fee to the outgoing and incoming tenants for the extra time and effort required to take people off a lease and to add new people to a lease.We also do month-to-month rental agreements.

I get this error too whenever I use my office computer, I'm suspecting my office computer block outgoing message.

I would start out going to http://reicaustin.org/  You will meet a lot of people there and can ask about some of the other good groups in town.  

I cant tell you how much money some of these guys make just by placing signs out, going to see if its a deal and then flipping it to companies like ours. 

You can do that by going to Craigslist, zillow or other websites to see how much the places are you renting out going for.