Like a lot of cities in California, San Mateo has a housing shortage, which can be seen through the high costs of housing and the increasing homeless population.

Very confident in running numbers and confirming a deal is worth it from acquisition to dispositionI also ran construction crews in Florida, Hawaii and now Ohio.

Dishwashers, washers and fridges have a high lemon probability of dying within 3-5 years once you’re out of warranty.

Brendan,In banking terms you might be "Risked out" meaning too many mortgages which equal "Excessive Tradelines" and those two things equal high risk.

First I start in LA but then can't find anything that makes sense as its highly competitive strong tenant rental control rights, etc.

Strategic Location: Ellenwood is a growing market with high demand for renovated properties.

Some criteria to consider when evaluating a market are:- school districts-crime rate- job/population growth  If the crime is low, schools are reputable, and job/population growth are steady/high, chances are you are looking in the right markets. 

@Eli Joffe the most general but applicable advice in your situation is to start focusing on high cash-flow properties with low equity growth potential in the beginning in order to have the cash to boot strap.Once you have a few properties under your belt, then start phasing in nicer homes which tend to be lower cash-flow with higher equity growth potentialThe former helps you boot-strap using more labor and the latter helps build wealth more passively and with less tenant struggles.

Have had it happen in personal houses before, it was usually due to humidity in cities with high, high humidity. 

I ran across a similar situation on a recent acquisition.