With the situation you're going through, your first thought was likely "I'll raise the rents to cover this." 

This would make a great co-hosting opportunity without worrying about making enough to cover rent.

I also want to clarify that I do still keep a decent amount of cash - just not enough to cover every single property roof at the same time if that ever happened for some reason. 

I've had clients rent by the room short and midterm and covered their entire mortgage.

Buying & selling it as land, no development.Perhaps what I have covers all the bases I am looking for. 

If you have the means to cover debt, you can avoid the accounts being liquidated.   

Right now, even if you have no reserve money saved, if a bad situation came up you could tap that 401k to cover the situation. 3.

I do not know much about San Antonio market so will cover pros/cons of San DiegoCons- price of entry.  

Bad news you may also have to cover your own commissions. 

If the water bill is $100 a month, increase the price by 20% (or whatever you decide is fair) to compensate you for the time required to split and bill and to cover additional use when tenants squander the utility.