Thanks for letting me know about meetups in the area, I would love to chat with other Bay Area investors.I definitely think East Palo has started to gentrify (Starbucks, Home Depot, Four Seasons all contribute $), but schools still have a long way to go.I bought in East Palo Alto in 5/2009; a fixer in East Palo Alto in 2010 and sold that; a fixer in Redondo Beach in 2/2011 and a fixer in Mountain View in 1/2012 but nothing since.

I'd suggest you allow at least 6 months seasoning for a loan made from equity of the seller.But really, just avoid CFDs.

This is convoluted enough to make a seasoned guys heads spin, let alone a newbie without money to put down 500.00 earnest money.

I just moved to Tacoma Washington from Los Angeles so I'll be here for a little while but I love San Fran and I used to date a girlfriend who went to Berkeley so we were up there a lot during football season.

This is what I'd do (and have done in similar situations): I'd take her now but only make the lease 6 months so that you can get it in-sync with the prime renting season going forward and get a better read on this tenant.

It's also an easier way for me to repay my investor as it wouldn't require taking out a mortgage after a 6-12 month seasoning period.

Second, the two PLRs had a specific fact pattern that generally requires some restructuring of the ownership of the property that you would want to build on, which may be deemed as a step transaction unless you have some seasoning (time).

If they are doing a rate/term refi there usually isn't any seasoning needed.  

Most banks, or other traditional lenders, will require between 6-12 months of seasoning before a refi.On the other hand, non-traditional or private sources, like mine, may not require any seasoning at all.  

Average rents for similar size are $1400-$1500, there are a lot of odd balls asking for $2500 for some reason, but I think those are mostly for seasonal tenants and the houses are furnished...