After tax contributions are preferred when you are in lower tax rates. 

That is why the property must be distressed to justify the lower offer.  

The returns are of course lower than selling $1m+ houses and condos, but the volume is high.

California has a wacky law where assessed value for property taxes can only increase at a very limited rate (~1%) so most people are locked into property tax rates much lower than their current home values, so this favors purchasing rather than waiting.$4300/month is at the high-end of affordability for me, so seems like the only way I'll be able to purchase a home of the quality/location I want is to liquidate (at least some portion of) my real estate portfolio.

The principal for the property currently sits at about $86,820, with an Escrow balance of about $850.This is obviously a very bad deal as it is; my question is what would be the best option to drop the mortgage every month in order to get a positive cash flow, either by refinancing the mortgage, or getting some other loan at a much lower monthly cost?

Also, appraisal and market values can be different and it might be lower than you're expecting.

Adding another meter base and city water meter could increase your cost to build a lot, but lower the monthly expenses. 

While we do have cash saved up, we'd prefer to work on our credit for another year before looking at getting a mortgage or commercial loan to possibly do a fix and flip.If you were us, would you a) use our cash to purchase, fix and flip something older and cheaper outright which seems like a huge undertaking for our first deal, b) use our cash as the downpayment/skin-in for a hard money loan (balloon) while we work on conventional qualifications to refi at a lower rate in 12 months, c) My in-laws are in the process of purchasing a seller-financed home and are interested in "renting-to-own" their place to us.

If there were no vacancies or capex this year her cap makes sense for 1 year... you use your numbers as leverage to lower the price.

BUT, the positive would be:+ Catagory A neighborhood with stable renters+ Betting on property value will increase over 10+ yr given the neighborhood+ Turnkey rental, leases in place till 2018Would these positives balance out the lower CAP rate?