Some local credit unions will restrict membership to local residents only, or they won't do out of state deals. 

You now have access to loans with fico scores as low as 540 with full documentation and around 600 with no documentation.

It doesn't really make sense if you cannot evict problematic tenants, restrict rental increases and your costs goes up over time while market rate apts sky-rocket.HENCE why I invest in smaller buildings that are not rent-regulated.

California tends to have more laws on the books and requirements and restrictions that it can be a good idea to form a CA LLC for out of state property so that you as a CA resident are covered, and to try to have your contracts fall under the purview of CA courts.

Sound like the MLS or some other site where multiple people have access to the same deal. 

I would recommend pulling the condo's Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions (CCR's - essentially their bylaws) from the county records, which generally indicate who's responsible for dues in event of foreclosure. 

I like the search features: https://www.biggerpockets.com/searchAlerts can be really helpful too: http://www.biggerpockets.com/alertsThere are a few self-contained guides that you can access here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/guides

Allen,Actually something you might not have thought of is that because you're in the LA market and CA which in general can be very expensive and restrictive.

The various cities out here each have their own regulations restricting STRs and those regulations can and do change relatively abruptly.

When I had a master metered park we had strict restrictions on what kind of appliances you could have etc.