You're likely way ahead of the normal BPer in your W2 or source of income job to enter these markets, and I understand if you don't want to share.

I understand it has the possibility to change yearly but I didn’t expect it to almost double what the mortgage is on the property.

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.What else can we assist you with?

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.What else can we assist you with?

You could put a line in your lease about “the landlord understands the inconvenience of broken appliances and will attempt to repair them as quickly as is reasonably.”

This is important as you understand where you want to be.

It was free the first year (or not free since their poor service and my lack of understanding cost me my tenants), but I refuse to pay for them again. 

From what I understand, equity on a property is the amount of money a property is worth minus the amount of money owed on the mortgage on the property.At least one article has said that the principal remaining on the mortgage is the only component of the mortgage that is accounted for when determining the amount of money owed on the property’s mortgage when calculating the equity one has on a property.I am not sold on just factoring a mortgage’s principal into the amount owed on a mortgage because if interest is also owed on the mortgage for the property, the interest should be accounted for in determining the amount of money owed on a mortgage, correct?

Whether it's financing, finding the right property, understanding the market, overthinking the process, or something else, I am interested to hear your experiences and challenges.

I agree with Konstantin.I am not sure about CA laws (they are not very favorable to landlords from what I understand).