Bullhead City is a river/casino area, so there are some great opportunities for "seasonal" rentals as well, or the latest craze, Air BnB.

Once you have property available and with significant down payment, the opportunities open up and financiers/banks would be willing. 

If you are looking for highest returns then owning outright is the most conservative and lowest possible return available due to the opportunity value of your equity.

As I'm sure you're aware competition in the Bay Area is pretty steep competition but real opportunities do pop up from time to time.

You can list a property during escrow if you are intending to buy before you resell.

I also have other opportunities with fellow real estate investors that I'm looking into.

I am looking to keep the ball rolling with my real estate investing, and am currently looking for financing to make an acquisition when an opportunity becomes available.

Pound it as much as you can, grab all opportunities.

@Jason Chen, I'm jealous of your opportunities in Florida. 

The air conditioning I had checked out by an HVAC company that fixed the obvious problems, as it was a cheap system that wasn't installed properly.One and a half handy people is not as fast as the professionals, so I missed the main window of opportunity for the target renter, students.