It's great that you already have a home and potential ADU too since being self-employed in the arts can also have extra hurdles just getting approved for a loan. 

However, California may not be the most favorable state for investment due to various reasons such as rent control, anti-landlord legislation, high costs, and high taxes.In this post, I will provide a straightforward process for selecting a city where:Rents outpace inflation: Inflation consistently erodes the purchasing power of a fixed amount of money.

Ill shoot you a DM I know a great broker there that can help in home selection and contract negotiation, but cannot improve the ROI if it simply isn't there

First, whether you are renting or selling these are two rooms sellers and tenants place greater emphasis on when selecting their housing.

@Art Perkitny thank you so much... can you do the same search for Huntsville and Kansas City Kansas?

The difficulty was not finding properties that would make money, it was selecting the property that would make the most money.  

You have to be quite selective and in some cases make some changes to the property to make it cashflow (ie add a garage, renovations etc).

On average, the profits from such a strategy might be higher in Boulder than all but a select few markets in the country (maybe certain parts of SoCal offer slightly better opportunities?). 

To avoid going through the same poor experience, keep reading.Even if someone gives you a referral here, do NOT make the mistake of assuming that the PMC will meet your expectations, just because they met the expectations of the referral source.In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

Find the lender, agent, whoever that meets those values, then execute upon selection.