Ben,Permits in place or are you not bothering with them (or inspections!).

We are waiting for the permits to be approved (house will be VACANT and unoccupied for at least 2 months).

You cannot say you're using gift funds to purchase investment property, since gift funds are not permitted as a source of down payment (at least for conventional financing).

This presupposes that you are limited to just one county for the simplicity of working with property managers and contractors/handymen, but with this in mind, I am going to share my real data with you.While the numbers don't lie, there are many other factors that should go into your decision like proximity to mountain recreation, as mentioned by @Stefan Coles.  

And that's just some of the planning stage.I won't even get into the 25 or 30 different permits you'll be required to obtain, their costs and their impact on your budget.Now think about the Federal regulations that are in place from Wetlands to Flood Plain Issues to Storm Water Management to National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems to Erosion Control during the construction/development phases.

I have been under the impression that Malibu is very difficult to get permits for new builds, what about new manufactured homes?

New Job created = 7200GDP Growth for 1st quarter = 0.2%, slower than national avg and slowest since 4th quester of 2009.Texas Leading Index = DownTexas Business Cycle Index = DecelerateDFW / Houston housing demand weaken month-over-month after peak in FebruaryAustin / San Antonio housing demand increasing.Housing sale = Increase 1.8% annually, monthly decline since april.Building permit = Houston (3,386) and Dallas-Fort Worth (3,091) still led the nation in the number of single-family permits issuedhttps://www.recenter.tamu.edu/articles/technical-r...

The amount we received for our loan will only permit us to be able to get a home around $300,000 I was thinking about looking somewhere in Los Angeles maybe around Compton area, but I am open to anywhere around the Los Angeles area for that price! 

Here is pretty much the run down of what you will need to know for each one: How many spaces is the park currently permitted for?

Perhaps, I can help you diversify your portfolio with some farmland or recreational land.