Not only do the tenants cover a majority or all of your living expenses(If you got a hot deal, you could potentially cash flow a good amount while covering all costs), but you get the close, upfront land-lording experience.

For the time being, I'll have to work with hot and sandy, though returning to the PNW is a lot closer to home than present position...

I am currently renting a 3 bedroom 1.5 bathroom house in the Silicon valley from my father in law for about 60% of the market rent for similar properties in the area. My father in law does not want to be in the landlo...

in my areas ithe rental market is pretty hot.  

The market turned from slow to hot so quickly after the holidays that it's hard negotiate prices much.

Is the market too hot here?

Knowing why they want to sell is a "hot button" that we can use later if need be. 

Understand a local market takes more than just a google map or one day trip.... you need to live there and watch the nightly evening news for 3 months......We californian flood every hot, semi hot, and quarter hot RE markets all over the country, and consider anything under $2,000,000 a deal.....The locals have to be laughing at us, is my guess.....

David, Dallas is a very hot market right now.

You are not required to provide emergency service for something that is not an emergency (lack of water or electricity is an emergency, lack of 'hot' water is not).