indeed, some areas of California can be a tough nut to crack, especially much of Southern California and the Bay Area for example...but sometimes you can drive to outlying areas and find far more affordable property.  

it's tough to afford giving up that money early in this business. 

If you can manage to find a fourplex for sale at a price you can afford, let me know!

If the unit is messy/dirty to the extend of being damaging or a health hazard, our lease also gives us the right to send-in a cleaning service at the tenants expense.Your biggest concern as a landlord will be vacancy - both physical and economic - as vacancy is foregone revenue.  

If more REI knew the many REI options afforded them from using their SDIRA, there would be many more happy IRA owners.

To your health and the winner's wealth.

Can you afford to buy and hold?

Does anyone have tips/resources on navigating this scenario; finding a good broker, questions to ask, key analysis to run to compare properties and gauging local economic health?

After getting married and adopting a newborn baby, I recognized the need for the health and life insurance benefits of a full-time position and hired on with Tandem Computers in 1992 making a six-figure salary.

I doubt we could afford to buy back into the market, so that's off-limits.