@Devin HarrisWelcome Devin, Glad to see more Youngstown faces here as it's a fantastic place to invest.

That being said, it would probably be easier to work with a local bank (in California) that you can discuss the opportunity face-to-face.  

Browsing the internet will only take you so far, the real business is done face to face at these meetings. 

However it just feels good to see the smiling faces on the parents faces 

Entity structuring is one of those often-overlooked areas of Real Estate Investing that can be kind of like the flu- you don't really give much thought to it until you get it (it, in the case of entity structuring, being a lawsuit), but once you have it- you can think of little else.Let's face it folks, we live in a litigious society.

Even if you use a national group, I have always found that it is useful to have someone I can have face to face time with to move things forward if necessary.

You have no idea what repairs it needs and you have barely found out the sellers personal situation. 

On Friday, they could barely keep up with all the water coming in, and they had 4 shop vacs.They don't know how it is coming in.

:)I do see some familiar faces here, Hi Dale!

It lacks a lot of the intensive institutional real estate pressures that S Fl and to a lessor degree Orlando and Tampa face (remember...the hedge funds dumped billions in the Tampa market when it was in the toilet.