But are folks suspecting that sellers are underpricing their homes to draw more traffic/overbidding?

There is a large influx of people looking to decrease their cost of living as well as increase their quality of life moving in from these high expense areas, and I suspect that trend to increase with the new tax law capping deductions at $10,000 for property taxes.

I invest in Fresno, CA which historically speaking has not been the hot rental markets such as Bay Area and LA and thus I suspect any rent control version adopted by Fresno would be different and I am just not sure how to plan for it. 

The E&O coverage among brokers can vary wildly, and transactions for agents under that policy are sometimes completely excluded - even if they aren't excluded, I'd expect some waffling on the insurer's part if they suspect any hinkiness to the deal, and a wronged homeowner is most certainly going to allege that you are hinky.

I think you are right, and I suspect that he mistakenly used 1.04% in his return calculations instead as well, because 4% leveraged 4-to-1 is 16% return right there on appreciation alone, not counting rent increases (which I also think he meant 2%, not 1.02%, and 2% still sounds low for CA BTW), cash flow over the long haul, tax incentives, mortgage pay down, forced appreciation, etc., etc., etc.

I suspect any offer that would make sense for me might not be substantial enough for the assisted care that I assume is probably needed. 

I've never seen stats but suspect that maybe gas ranges have higher incident of fires?

I suspect they meant that the late fee is either 10% of the rent due or $300, whichever is greater.

In many recent years prior to 2022, the appreciation could have got you to 80% LTV in a single year in many markets (i suspect it was true for the DMV market for many of those years).  

We have a provision to inspect the property at least once per year or if we suspect anything (for example: neighbor calls regarding drug being sold...happened in a different house).