Low barrier to entry, low taxes, landlord friendly, some amazing class A and B suburbs and a strong urban core. 

So on numerous occasions, I have expressed my concerns about staying within my budget.Now on top of this, the property manager let the pipes freeze and they leaked and the boiler also cracked which I was told to file an insurance claim.

It's an estimated cash on cash return given current rental rates subtract expenses assuming 7% interest rate, 10% management fee, 5% repairs, 5% capex and other expenses like mortgage, insurance, tax. it's a estimate to tell you what properties to analyze vs ignoreyou can see the are pockets of negative returns as well as pockets of positive return. this is to supplement the data @Devin Conley provided

I don't see much data to back up these wild claims in the article.

Because of the nature of a tax lien, it would be difficult to obtain financing from a commercial lender secured by the tax lien itself.  

The home burns and the incredibly over taxed CA FAIR plan has either gone bankrupt or takes years to pay out.2.

My duplex - built 1989, 2,060 sf, 2 bed/bath, 1 year old roof, value if I subdivide (county already approved) and sell each separately $150k each ($300k total)Investor duplex - built 1995, 2,300 sf, 2 bed/bath, 5 year old roof, value around $310kThe investors initial request was for an equal trade and they would pay realtor fees, which I replied wouldn't be equal due to buying/selling costs (recording fees, title insurance, closing fee, survey, inspections, loan fees, 1031 fees, accountant fees, repairs), taxes would increase due to new sale price, I'd trade a 3.75% mortgage for a higher one, and I'm on the 10th year of a 30 year loan so resetting that to a new loan would restart amortization and pay more towards interest.

a lot of people will poo poo this, but I also live in a market where cash flow is low, property taxes are high and properties are expensive (which is a relative term).

Hard to give good advice without more info, but since You are single no kids it's hard to beat buying a single family fixer upper and living in it for two years and then selling for tax free profits....I'm a big fan of Waltham these days $.02 

Technically it would be best to get a C Corporate or S Corp. to flip properties and since you are considered a dealer if you do several properties a year and this could have negative tax consequences in an LLC.