Your attitude is not determined by circumstances, but by how you respond to your circumstances.Any challenge facing you is not as important as your attitude towards it, for that will determine your success or failure.It’s how you react to events, not the events themselves, that determines your attitude.Copyright 2007 http://www.yourdailymotivation.com Reproduce freely but maintain Copyright notice.Comments:Living by this principle takes practice on a daily basis.

Like it or don't like it, there is a class of leaders within every populace that must maintain control.

"Deferred Maintainence", please elaborate?

I would recommend fix/maintain what the properties need.  

Is the HOA not a board organized by the owner and a few others to maintain the property?

The not so obvious ones like folks who build, install and maintain traffic signs and signals.  

My personal 20% is setting up and maintaining systems and processes to find and manage properties efficiently, time management so I can put family first, having clearly defined goals, having the discipline to wait for the right renters and buy the right property for the best price possible and continuously learning.

Tenants are paying power and trash and I'm paying water and sewer (which is pretty expensive in this area for some reason) and I pay for the lawn to be maintained.

As David advised, I would concentrate on putting your effort and energy into one before focusing on multiple projects at once.

If you lived in ATL, knew the market like the back of your hand, and could maintain local control over your investments there, I'd say go for it ... but you don't live in ATL, you live in LA, so my advice is invest in LA at least starting out, where you have home court advantage.