My background is in math and engineering so I also think it'd be cool to analyze their spending and maybe start recognizing areas for improvements. 

This immediately struck me as odd as I wasn't aware of any form of compensation to the PM for any maintenance related activities, just 8% of gross rent and 1-month of rent to lease the property, per our contract.Naturally I wanted to understand the nature of this arrangement, specifically how much mark-up is being charged, so I referenced a specific sewer repair bill from 2015 that was $2,600 and asked him if he could provide the vendor invoice so I could understand how much the vendor charged and how much revenue the PM recognized.  

California does not recognize series LLCs.You also want to look at whether a pass-through entity helps your bottom line and your taxes.

@Mark Forest if you knew your data, then you'd also know that Detroit is using the US Census Bureau over several of its antiquated & mistakenly applied practices that have not properly recognized Detroit's growth over the last 5-6 years.Not even going to bother copying an article link here for your benefit as your head is buried too deep in the sand for any logical info to reach you.I'm sure you're successful wherever you're investing.

If you really want the property and don't mind a small gamble put down an amount of earnest money that you will not be upset to lose and that if you were in the seller's shoes would make you feel OK about taking the property off the market for 60 days and make it non-refundable to be conveyed to Seller upon offer acceptance. 

@Vanessa Switzler recommend checking out Detroit market.The recent NFL Draft, US Census Bureau finally recognizing the city population is growing (has been for 4+ years) and the fact that Detroit beat out Miami for highest appreciation in 2023 is attracting a lot of over-due attention.Already $4.5B of recent investment commitments and counting!

@Tushar P.Every state is going to be different, as each state has a slightly different tax regime in place.Some states recognize IRC Sec 469. 

I had a few appraisals come back from Akron/Clv markets and had the appraiser comment that it is a "down market".If you are targeting the 50k purchases with the 20k rehab and then hopping to refi out afterward you are taking a gamble because if you do not get the 100k value after the rehab you can get stuck in the project or be forced to take a mortgage with a terrible rate.Keep your purchases 80k and up and try to make sure your project costs are over 100k on everything so you can be pretty confident that you'll get the 100k value afterward.

Are you good at recognizing BS and calling people on it? 

The benefit being, both Fannie and Freddie recognize the program, and you will be able to price the loan as if it was a primary residence, not a second home or investment property.