I've looked around at the facilities here, but I'm certain if they are a reflection of the residential prices in the area, that they will be asking an astronomical sum...or unwilling to sell.

I know of landlords who were unwilling to drop prices and compromised on tenant screening standard (also in the Bay Area).

They cant get a good pm bc most of us won't work there and they are unwilling to manage themselves.If you buy 1 place in a B grade area which you can for that price you will not have the same issues.

If an applicant in unwilling to spend $35 on a credit check then to me that is a red flag. 

Since this would be my first rental property, I do not have any information or experience on getting MtM tenants out or what to do if they become unwilling.

Anything that could indicate the owner does not know the condition of the property or is unwilling/unable to have upkeep performed.  

I have several ADU projects ongoing and all in the SFV (where I was born and raised).Word of caution: Appraisers will NOT give you full (and likely not even half) the value it takes to build/convert to an ADU as there are just not enough comps to support values in the single family space and they are unwilling (at least for now) to use a true duplex as a comp since the legal usage of an R2 property is different than an R1 property even though you can now effectively turn any R1 property into a multi family property in CA.So, investor friendly contractor - how do you define that?

Most are unwilling to release their client information, but it can save you some heartache.

Statistics would help me with understanding if there's a large pool of investors out there unwilling to go out of state for the same reason I don't.

Even a local landlord unwilling (or with the experience) to work to find good lower-cost repair talent.