So we are still catching up with the market demand that we did not supply over the last 8 or so year.

I have a couple of fellow BPers that I catch up with from time to time.  

I admit we're definite totally new to this on the legal/real estate side versus the construction side and trying quickly to catch up.

That is a good catch for the yard maintenance.

You will be receiving your water bills monthly, so an issue should be quick to catch.

I think that the answer depends on you, if it were me personally I would save your money in an account and read "rich dad poor dad" to start, and than read as many books as you need about on the type of investing that catches your interest.

Review the risks in the PPM - there are basic risks in any RE investment but some that catch your attention may need some explaining.6) Communications - ask for their communications schedule.  

Most of the time these properties are unoccupied, so take down the address and then lookup the property owner.If you do go door knocking, an easy way to do that is to try and catch the person outside the property.

In California, our prices are extremely high, let me rephrase 'insanely' high but our rent doesn't catch up to our monthly payments, in actually having equity doesn't hurt our case flow.

I'll follow up as I catch more of a clue.