I have a very strong suspicion that the "book keeper" and the offsite "maintenance" person are taking advantage of the owner's trust. 

When you have amassed the money you feel you need for this new endeavor or REI, I would strongly recommend you meet with a mortgage/financial professional first.

When you are about to "throw yourself" into this new endeavor or REI, I would strongly recommend you meet with a mortgage/financial professional first.  

The area is a C- to D+ but there are some strong signals that employment in the area will be increasing soon.Thanks,Dave

If viable, could then benefit from a strong lease template, and advice on some special stips I may want to include (for a potential renter I have in mind)...and finally, may want to engage my new mentor (or someone else) as Property Manager.

I call on the ones that I am about to or strongly considering putting a contract on.I've been using rentometer, zillow, and realtor to get an idea of what people are asking for and in some cases zillow will show off-market and what it was listed at (whether it rented at that amount of not).

We also have very strong language in the lease about smoking in the home (I don't think it would hold up in court) and this acts as another deterrent.

Since there are so many real estate crowdfunding platforms out there, cracking the top 5 pages in google searches is extremely difficult for a site that has no market share.I'm no SEO expert but getting up in the rankings requires patience and strong content that people will want to read.  

fortune builders is smart and will use your money to invest in the commercial market and in their very strong PR machine.  

no legal advice but from a fellow california landlord start the process. if she is a professional tenant she will quickly figure out all the things you have done wrong and cause more problem for you than if you just did it right.When my tenants are late or problem children  I sedt a strong professional letter telling her she has X time to pay or I will start the evection process under the fullest extent of the law.