As I understand it, Orange county is one of the fastest growing markets as people re locate to florida. 

(A manager at HD told me that HD generally sends product back to the manufacturer rather than marking it down and blowing it out like Lowes does).I have bought ugly (orange looking Oak) 7mm, and nice (bright, light Pine)  7mm laminate at Lowes, one time for .52 cents a foot, but usually for .70 cents or so.  

In fact, most of the coastal areas of Orange County are.

You need to be able to quickly dissect reality to something that is fruitful..Also chime in on all the out of state I buy cash flow threads.. those CA investors NEED honest feedback.. and I for one think they need to engage far more with local quality PM then they do in the out set of their search for a TK or out of state rental.

When you become the owner of a property, you are then entitled to the fruits of the land, these pricing limitations fade away and your price is determined by the market.This is too long already, sorry, I'll contribute to justified values later on, but those justifications have little to do with your personal involvement.As to the above transactions, it appears the buyer made additional concessions, no rent, low rents, I assume cleaning up the place, these are things above and beyond simply facilitating a transaction and that carries value.

(Agent Orange but not recognized, fixed income, divorced father of three in house children, collecting SSI) With that being said.

And out of all the places in SoCal I'm based in Orange County so after having been educated to start local, I was marketing to Orange County.

@Jd Martin  he is based in Orange CA and yes socal based.... unlike most guru's he has done a ton of investing and selling of actual real estate..

Their total is valued around $1.3M and their cash flow is about $2,7002) I then started purchasing those higher priced properties in Orange County, and their value is about $1.5M with a cash flow of negative $1003) You mentioned that the 9 properties are valued at $3.7M but I think this is wrong, and the the more accurate value is $2.8M ($1.3M + $1.5).

I decided to save money not painting the whole house orange but only the trim. what do you think?