The cost of poor property management can be thousands though.

Or if you are married or have a partner, any final decision must be run by them.This advice might not sound very warm and fuzzy, but it will help you make necessary business decisions as they come up, and that will minimize emotional and/or financial harm to you.Hope this helps.

My next decisions today will set the tone for my future, so trying to make the best moves possible.Any suggestions?

The lender will need a "condo questionnaire" completed, along with the budget, insurance and contact for the management company, to make a decision about lending.   

I'm all for jumping in, but if you had evidence of others who were interested in a property, it could help to be a second opinion on your purchase decision.

It’s just juxtaposing some life decisions that go on in Los Angeles, OC, and San Diego.

I believe education is key to making informed decisions and I don't want any client to say "I never knew about that" when working with me.

I think hard money lending would be awesome, I am not at that point yet, but I have worked with several of hard money lenders and I know that if you do hard money lending that you will need a system and guidelines to guide your lending decisions along with enforceable legal documents in case things don’t go as planned you can foreclose and take back the property to recoup your investment.Turn key rentals managed by an honest turn key company could be a good avenue for you but you will need to vet the company and manage the manager.Buying performing notes is also more of a passive investment that could get you maybe an 8-9% return.

Think a list of qualifications that applies a weight to each trait:Credit Score - XPets - XIncome - XPrevious recommendations - XLength of proposed lease - XDeposits - XTransunion gives you a go- no go decision but the above may help you grade the quality of each potential tenant while being objective.   

When I was a tenant, my reasons for leaving various places was 1) moving to another area  2) moved in with b/f (now H)  3) bought a house.There was one additional time where I moved out because the unit was poorly maintained.