Or a decent condo.  

Welcome Brooke, you don't need to go too far, near where you live, Pittsburg and Antioch have some good multi-unit houses that give you decent return compare to other cities in Bay Area. 

Otherwise, there's usually a decent amount of work to be done, I do the work (or have it done), rent it out and benefit from the increased value of the work. 

On a short sale, can the listing agent simply say:"Sorry, someone applied before you and submitted the EMD, you can't bid"In this case, the owner is out of town and it's highly likely she hasn't signed the contract.Wh...

Before using the shot I have now, I used a more informal one of me shaking hands with a good-old-boy as an experiment on this site to see how well it played.  

He was great at rehabbing and he put a lot of work into his first investment but then it wasn't really taken care of..So my question is, since I haven't done this before lol...Any tips on getting decent stuff (long lasting really) without getting caught up in trying to pull off some HGTV moves..? 

If you value equity over cashflow (I personally agree with you btw), it should be super easy for ANY mortgage guy to make ANY decent rental property exactly cashflow neutral with exactly the shortest payoff period possible if you provide the parameters and ask.

Any exterior shots? 

With that said, it commands a decent rent for what you can get a property for.

I have a decent equity in my house so I am in the process of cash out refinance with NO closing cost.