do some odd jobs--plenty of contractors are looking for help...start a lawn care business (extremely popular right now), work for a company that's involved with real estate such as a property manager, title company or hard money company (F-Street is often hiring) or a real estate investment company? 

If you don't have a background in renovations / project management / construction I would recommend you leave "deal" alone.

Local Property managers and realtors are a wealth of knowledge. 

If you are scared of losing everything and that everything is the 16k entry plus closing costs, it's not worth it on subject-to which has to be done correct and requires a lot of management to make sure their loan does not get called.

Maybe you could contact a local STR management company and work for them for free to get some idea of what is to manage a STR.

Since you are investing in areas with lower or no appreciation you will see your equity grow much slower than markets that have appreciation as all you have is debt paydown.If you can leverage your position now I would look for properties where you can create equity through renovations, management, property use, etc.

Manager said when they replace unit they replace flue because shape on new ones is different and/or Dept of Bldg and Safety require it.  

Source: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml...Always consider the tenant management component of any changes, however.

We've developed short term property management software based on automations taken from guest messages.

The detailed cost segregation study report can help businesses more effectively manage their assets.If assets don’t fall into one of the examples above, there are options such as a 1031 exchange, gifting them through a trust or other advanced tax strategies to avoid depreciation recapture.