In our area, its fairly "normal" for showings to happen after accepted offer to minimize disruption to tenants. 

on second thought your numbers are fairly conservative.

Is it fair to only protect one side?

This would apply to your unit.Your biggest concern with setting the rent should be the near future. 1) Your insurance is guaranteed to go up, probably dramatically.  2) You may get an insurance assessment bill to cover the CA Fair Plan losses.

If you can get a big 4-5 BR house with a view for a under a million bucks, i'm pretty confident you can cash flow it with a good return, even in a 6%-7% interest rate environment. 

@Caryn Fischer You can sell your house to your child below fair market value (FMV), but the difference is treated as a gift.

Sub $100k loan.Just a fair heads up you will not get less than 7% on a sub 100k loan from any trustworthy DSCR lender.

Lenders desperately need/want business especially in this interest rate environment (right now, the main source of mortgage loan business in Florida is rehab financing as a result of the hurricane damages) and one way the big players differentiate themselves is by streamlining the process.

I'm 2 miles from 2 hospitals (one is Swedish and I've heard that they get a fair amount of travelers) and within walking distance to Denver University.

Please note that we will be flying out to the area fairly soon.