The majority of this is really just trying to through buckets of water, on a forest fire of a market.

I've bid on a bunch of these as have my clients, and there are many reasons to see them in advance (mold, bad location, terrible general condition of property, bad septic system, etc).

We have an issue with water around the front door. 

It's also better for flooding and water quality if we keep our floodplains open. 

Even the LADWP is a pain to deal with and anything electric can linger for months if not years in this cityFor that reason, i would recommend to absolutely avoid any interaction with the city unless you do really heavy work that would have significant impact on the appraisal like maybe adding bedrooms and bathrooms or adding lots of square feetThe current system doesn't reward doing the things by the book; you actually will be way ahead doing things on your own and just comply if you get an order to comply one day (very unlikely anyway).

@Leon Kanon what systems do you use?

What’s your follow up system if someone is not interested right now??

Our systems are just about rock-solid (some lingering P&L clean up, could use a better GC/Handy-person on call) and our occupancy should be taken care of through this weekend's showings.

Consider property taxes, utilities traditionally paid by the owner in that area (water, trash, electric, gas, ...), repairs, maintenance and landscaping, costs to service the loan, etc.If your friend would become your tenant, would you be willing to raise the rent on her? 

Owner pays water/trash/sewer & natural gas for water and heat.