The first line of the Legislative Counsel's Digest includes the following: Existing law specifies that a hiring of residential real property, for a term not specified by the parties, is deemed to be renewed at the end of the term implied by law unless one of the parties gives written notice to the other of that party’s intention to terminate. 

It really is an amazing space, probably one of the last property types yet to be institutionalized but it's coming - public REITs own less than 3% of the existing stock and its estimated only about 15% is owned by private institutional investors. 

You could simply find a different property.If the existing drains were filling the sump fine and the existing sump discharge line was discharging far from the house in a down hill direction and the only problem was that the existing pump had failed, then I probably wouldn't be worried, I'd simply ask the owner to buy a new pump before closing.

As someone looking to get started in the next 12 months, I feel very intimidated by the idea that the market is saturated with investors here.

They know the longer they are in existence the higher their cap ex estimate number will become, but they still estimate based on their past actuals knowing it is under estimating the life time cap ex (and yet I still claim they are one of the more reputable in part because they are honest about how they derive their maintenance/cap ex numbers and if you ask they will admit that long-term it is under estimating the real cost). 

The places where they exist in somewhat higher numbers are Kingman Park, Trinidad, Brentwood, EOTR,  and then a random ones here and there through out the city.

One month rent for new tenants and $150 to renew lease with existing tenants.  

Come to the end of the project 2 days after carpet was installed in the basement we have a ton of rain and the existing waterproofing system fails and floods the basement.

Nothing to worry about as again that will be the case anytime you purchase a property with an existing tenant.

When I'm doing the initial conversation with a real estate investor who has 3 or 5 existing properties, I don't even bother asking how their credit is, since I know that as long as they are paying those mortgages on time they will have excellent credit.