I'm going to over generalize but a property built in 2010 versus 1910 comes with a lot less issues. 

And maybe some other minor improvements.

Can the staging be improved?  

Maybe have your own home improvement co.

They will then need to justify the use of triplex’s versus 3 SFR on a single lot in the appraisal, as there are no similar comps. 

The units were also being upgraded (albeit at a very slow pace).So, as you can imagine I was super excited to find a deal where we could not only improve management, but also increase rents and not have to spend a ton of money to on CAPEX and repositioning.

2 camps in CA I see frequently.Those who made a ton of equity cycle upside and their dead equity versus the rents they collect has a wide gap.They see California with a host of issues and raising taxes and looking to put rent control on landlords.

Zillow "...generates unbiased local and national real estate data and analysis on 929 metropolitan areas and approximately 10,400 individual neighborhoods that we provide to consumers and real estate, rental, mortgage and home improvement professionals..." (2) The Zillow database focus is data aggregation of 110 million properties with "information from tens of thousands of public and private sources."

Like mentioned above keep your eyes peeled for something you can improve or see creating the extra value possible in SD.

I'll take a cash flowing property that appreciates 1% a year with a 9% cash on cash return versus a negative cash flowing property that may or may not appreciate 10-15% in a year.