@Steven Antonellis, won't cookie-cutter condos be difficult to buy at the 30+% discount (as-is) you'd need to buy them at in order to BRRRR?

Learn to control both sides of the equation and you will be amazed at how fast your balance sheet will grow. 

Unfortunately evictions in CA are sometimes difficult.  

This will probably add roughly 5-15K onto the balance of your loan.  

Using a line of credit is ok, if you are paying the LOC balance with property income.

@Allen Collier, I would not risk suffering a vacancy at a time that will be difficult to rent the property.

I was just paying my statement balances to avoid interest charges, but when we started shopping for a new primary residence I heard about this strategy and began paying the current balance instead right before they reported and it made a noticeable difference since I my credit report now had near $0 on all my revolving credit.

It can be difficult to get a cash-flowing property (or break-even) with 100% financing UNLESS you're doing some rehab on it.VA loans are great tools, but it can often make sense to buy a property you will live in and rent out a room or two to some roommates. 

Unfortunately me not being from MA makes this search even more difficult but I guess i'll be giving the city a nice drive as I did for worcester! 

Hiring an attorney and trying to collect would likely be difficult and expensive.