Mostly just Iowa law stating landlord must attempt to mitigate their losses by re-renting unit as soon as possible. 

Second, you could buy a bigger place and rent out rooms.

Hi Stacie,There is a Bigger Pockets Real Estate Investors meetup coming up soon.The next event will take place on Friday, October 19th at 5:30 PM @ Ballast Point - Miramar.Address: 9045 Carroll Way, San Diego, CA 92121.Check out: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/623256-san-diego-real-estate-investor-happy-hour-friday-october-19th?

The bigger pocket calculator gave me the ranges for repairs and cap ex. 

Appreciation and equity however play a way bigger part in the Austin market and what my clients focus on when purchasing duplexes. 

.- If you have a loss which you might at least on paper, you can deduct all looses against your W2 income without limits.- Structure: Form LLC, if you have looses don't treat it as an s-corp yet, since it is an added unnecessary cost at the moment but do form it.- Have kids: Hire them, they pay no tax up to 12K each and you get to deduct 12K.

I’m very excited to be joining the Bigger Pockets Community!

I am a newbie on this site. I am interested to get a pro membership. But I want to hear what you all think. Is the pro membership worthwhile?

There are rural areas in Kern County where prices have not really recovered like much of the state and better cashflow exist,  But these areas don't have the solid job base that bigger cities have so finding solid tenants is a challenge.  

So glad you've rediscovered Bigger Pockets early in your real estate investing journey.A few tips that may be helpful to you here on the BP website:You can set up keyword alerts so anytime someone posts about Milwaukee or any of the other markets you're evaluating, you'll be notified.