For the last couple years I've been building small apartment buildings which lets me avoid the high purchase prices.

Some of them are good deals (despite a strong increase in prices in the past couple of years), but there are many which are simply cheap.  

The real question comes down to this:  Do you want to chase IRR returns or do you want the best preferred return from day 1. 

Not been rented for a couple yearsContractor confirmed that it takes about 20-25k per apartment for repairs and updates. 

In my situation, if a tenant pushes back and threatened legal repercussions for a couple hundred dollars of damage, I simply give it back.

Hello,Finally, we have found a good candidate tenant—a young married couple with a son and their parent, totaling 5 people.The Zillow credit check and background check did not reveal any negative information, like  what many have mentioned in this forum.So, I conducted an AAOA check, and it showed two lien histories from their father:Recording date: 06/xx/2019, Amount: $10,xxx, Filing Location: San Bernardino, CA, Document Number: 210xxxRecording date: 03/xx/2019, Amount: $30,xxx, Filing Location: San Bernardino, CA, Document Number: 96xxxI inquired about these, and he said one was due to a car that was totaled in an accident, asserting it wasn’t his fault.

. : mid 30 couple with single kid ,Primary  SF home is paid off and currently appraised at 700K .

Our preference would be a location that could be fun in the summer (mountains/trails) and winter (snowboarding).  

A lot of landlords will say no but there's a good group of them that see the value in it and prefer working with us and our team.

We've rented to a couple of Physical Therapists, a Nurse Practitioner, an Optometrist and currently have a travel nurse and her digital nomad finacee in our 1/1 unit.