I'd like it to be reasonably close (I'll be living in Marin county).Considering my limited capital, I'll need to start in lower end areas, at least by Bay Area standards, but I'd rather not have to bring an armed escort.Some options I'm considering are:OaklandVallejoSanta RosaNapa/SonomaVallejo in particular looks interesting.

My limited experience is roughly $1,000 per entity.

These trusts are designed to house real estate within a grantor trust and provide limited access to grantor or beneficiary information contained in the trust instrument or known to the trustee.

Based on you picture I would pass on that property.Stucco can have problems up front along with the brick veneer.Do not like all the stairs and double ups.Seniors will have a hard time renting and families do not like carrying items up and down all those stairs.That leads to tenant turnover and limited starting renter pool.The parking lot is thrashed.I also do not like the slope of that parking lot.Makes it very hard to pull in and out of there for traffic and makes it hard to get in and out of the car.To overcome all of those things a tenant will have to pay a way below market rent rate to deal with the inconvenience.Is washer and dryer in the units??

Can anyone offer some advise on how I could possibly delegate some of the grunt work or how I can make the best use out of my limited time.

Most umbrellas will write over a $300k underlying limit so there is no need to go to $500k.

What is being done to limit the use of derivatives and credit default swaps that caused this whole thing?

A community bank may allow you to go to a higher combined loan to value given that their exposure is limited to 80LTV.

What about giving them a small credit card (under $500 limit, say) as a "petty cash" account?

That makes it very painful for the lender to foreclose.Also realize that all lenders have some LTV limit.