HOWEVER; if those areas aren't completely isolated from the property you are looking at (a freeway or other major thing separating them) the property probably will appreciate, and you would then be kicking yourself in the pants saying "I should have bought that when I could have!"

Very new to rental property investing so I'm hoping this is an isolated local/small bank issue. 

Even when you are connecting laptops and phones, the DC power supply completely isolates the device, so very little risk of damage.

By the way, if you don't know who Charles Van Doren is (you might recognize the name somewhere in the back of your mind), he was the academic portrayed by Ralph Feinnes in the film QUIZSHOW about the 1950s gameshow scandal where they were giving Charles Van Doren the answers to the questions they asked him while he was in the isolation booth.

Some people prefer to isolate each property with its own LLC, others may prefer to have all the properties under a single LLC.The question is obviously highly opinionated without one single answer as each individual person will feel differently towards how they want to protect their assets.

A series LLC would isolate each property to itself so any liability from one or 2 properties would not affect the others.

Cut around the brackets, then fill in and level with a floor patching compound.Or I'd do a tile floor with an isolation membrane -- I don't like that crack in the corner much, either.

I’ve been looking at SFRs mainly (and multi-fams very lightly) in El sereno, montecito heights and Whittier (hills) for views; NoHo, Lake Balboa and Van Nuys for the pools (“southern” area hear freeways and Ventura Blvd, to be near or adjacent to energy/people and not too alone/isolated), signal hill (non-cookie cutter homes) a little, for views and ocean.

Covid aside, I feel pretty isolated from other real estate investors in this area and not many people seem active here on BP so it's really great to hear from you!

At a minimum, this should go to the CA DRE, if this is not isolated misconduct they will identify it.As for the deal - if it pencils, close it, see if someone else from the brokerage can step in and bring the transaction to a close.