It was a Ric Edelman book that changed my perspective..

I never thought about legal perspective, but there are so many electronic way to pay rent now, I am just not a fan of receiving checks.

It was said already, yes you can increase your down payment in order to make the cash flow but from a cash on cash perspective it makes no sense to do so, as the returns will make it a bad investment unless it does appreciate in value and can sell down the road for profit but then your not really investing for cash flow at that point but rather appreciation in which then can you manage the property until it does?

@Jay Hinrichs Makes sense, I only know it form the home owners perspective and California has some fun laws that developers have to adhere to. 

the problem is that you're looking at REI as a hobby. if you look at it from a business perspective, I'm sure your strategy will change.reduce expenses, increase revenue.

One of the bigger concerns for me from a snowballing perspective is that since I have to put 30% down it is going to significantly eat into my available cash for other investments.  

I have an inkling now of how the "what's the cash flow" perspective may not be effective in evaluating properties.  

I gave you a fact on “what to do” under “construction-injury” perspective as that is what you asked, yet you think it was a mere “idea”?

I don't buy CFDs so wouldn't know the answer, but would assume there are extra steps to keep in mind from a disclosure/legal perspective vs when you're reviewing a note secured by a deed of trust/mortgage?

No experience with the other markets, but from my perspective on Austin, sales have slowed due to lack of available and affordable inventory (whatever affordable means).