But it’s all upside no downside to let it go to auction. 

My biggest advice is to start investing where you have a good network of people you know like and trust...this especially holds true if you will be investing out of state.While it's not impossible to go straight to the commerical I personally found it easier to start in the residential world and then make my way over to commerical multi-family. 

They want to make the biggest fee off of each deal they can.  

Our hypothesis was that by having the highest-reviewed properties, everything in the business would become easier.Paid Cleaners Well: Cleanliness was the biggest factor impacting reviews, so we decided not to take any chances.

That was the biggest benefit that came up time and again was the amount of time that they stay in the property reducing turnover.

I am an insider with several of the biggest developers/builders, so I know what there doing next, and next after that, for years coming.

The biggest ways IMO are MLS data, multiple solutions for sellers (off market cash deal or listing), ability to rep. yourself on your own deals (saving on commission).Commission savings adds up fast when you're doing multiple deals a year.That being said, there is cost to having a license so if you're only doing a couple deals a year then it might not make as much sense.

When the biggest buyer in the market is gone, supply balloons and rates have to go up to bring in buyers.

I think your biggest asset is the 2.25% rate and the 2019 CA property tax basis.

For example, if you own a property with $400k in equity and you can still easily cash flow with a $300k cash out what is the down side to doing this?