My parents made a fortune off of RE investing in Bakersfield when the recession hit.

Fall is going to hit you quickly. 

My perspective on this as a former HOA manager for a 104-unit complex in northern California is that the HOA needs to know because of the possible impact to adjoining units.

But, if you only budget 5% and have a month long vacancy then your Cash Flow takes an unexpected hit.  

In terms of the seller financing, you just need to sell them on minimizing their tax hit in year one if they stand to make a large capital gain on the sale.

put tenant in it and sell to someone who wants cash flow.. that's a rental that is not a retail sell to owner occ location or house.. and if you got hit twice it is a war zone.. or a baby war zone.

But ultimately I'd ensure it all hit one main rental account first. 

Awesome plan, make sure when buying the land that you try and stay out of those flood zones in Houston so you don't get hit by the next Harvey.

@Jennifer Bailey you just hit the nail on the head. 2-4 units can be profitable, but typically you have to self manage them in order to make the numbers work.

I don't have too much experience with real estate (besides purchasing my primary residence) so I've really been enjoying the content here so far :) My goal in the near-term future is to buy & hold at least one commercial property somewhere in Northern California (probably not San Francisco due to insanely high costs).