Either way, there are a number of good options currently on the market for the goals you have laid out.

What are other options to buy and hold while recycling my cash and not getting too deep on negative cash flow?

You will then have a few options with that rent money....you can put it into principal or you can start saving it to purchase yet another property.

Insurance costs are also a bit different, but at the end of the day, the home was a better option.

There are quite a few other options that you should consider before walking away, though.It sounds like maybe a fix-and-flip loan would be a viable option for you.

Most FSBO's in my area are not good enough to be Wholesaled but may make for a good Lease Option.

You will then have a few options with that rent money....you can put it into principal or you can start saving it to purchase yet another property.

Time and money for an eviction in CA is our last option, and not ideal.

The fact that I can regularly speak to many real estate finance "experts" and many of them are uninformed about certain financial rules/options is one of the things I've had to learn the hard way.

You can look up cash buyers on propwire free, and reach out to the LLC owners by looking them up, or call the agent and ask them.Another option would be to find some private money lenders, and get them to go down on a hard money loan with you, unless you can get all the capital from one person alone (this is very difficult because most people won't loan that much to someone new to real estate).