Because it shouldn’t require Wi-Fi to let people into the house, so as long as the lock is letting people in, it’s mostly OK to deal withBottom line: in the freezing cold weather, is it simply that you can’t remotely connect for a time period?

My thought is I buy a multi-fam (off market preferably) and house hack for 2 years then move south.

Two contributing factors are high construction costs and regulations that make obtaining a construction permit difficult.California already has a large housing shortage.

It works the exact same way and it's the same exact lease with one difference - they specify that they are renting a bedroom and not the whole house. 

I have a house, I plan to sell this spring.

The specific location ( 4' * 6' long) is underneath a guest bedroom window in the front of the house. 

Currently listed 2 houses 1.5m each and the market is dead.

I would learn all you can, go to meetups, build relationships, but only buy something now if you are going to house hack it for the two years until you go and then just rent out your unit when you go.

(They have the deferred maintenance you'd expect after a fixed income senior lived in them for several years, plus smokers, pets)So how do I turn 5 straggling houses into a proper real estate portfolio and well-managed rental business? 

Purchase price: $295,000 Cash invested: $22,000 Before moving into this house we had to add piers under the hours as the previous were not grounded with cement.