The concepts and challenges of community property are not well understood and result in confusion and planning errors.

You can also diversify much easier and cheaper over geography so you are less exposed to the risk of a single metro area experiencing the loss of a major employer or other unique problem and messing up your returns.

Just do what is average and not unique to the area you choose. 

Searching in a hot market like Seattle area is challenging as the retail buyers drive up the prices beyond what makes sense as an investment.

What Dan says is common I think in that trading for assets outside of Cali could be a challenging thing to replace. 

Your hardest challenge will be keeping the Debt-to-Income ratio for refinancing.

What you have is unique.

I guess getting the cards may be a challenge if your credit is down, but you can check out some articles like this (https://wallethub.com/credit-cards/bad-credit-bala...) and see if you can find something to take the edge off. 

My challenge is when looking at their total net income, they are making about $6,800 net, but after deducting $2,200 rent, $3,200 total debt obligations and $100 utilities, they are left with only $1,300 per month to live with.

The HOA could challenge the validity of the TCB sale and you might not get a deed.