@Jake Posner- thanks for the post ...if you plan on needing financing for the rental proeprty - make sure to get  fully pre approved  for the hypotehtical  scenario you are planning ...use a loan officer or lender that is licensed is all the states  you are looking at . thanks 

We frequently have properties offered to us off market in the $250k-$750k range but finding decent lenders or investors is a slight challenge. 

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processesWe recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

Once you have the number of your potential tax hit (and, by extension, how much you can defer with a 1031 exchange), you can compare that to the effort you'd have to make to comply with California.When it comes to making sure that your potential exchange is buttoned down, that is largely a matter of working with the right QI partner. 

My first recommendation would be to speak with a lender regarding the costs/fees associated with the refinance.Strategy-wise, you're in luck!

Should I be a private lender since rates are so high?

Also finding out that you might as well not waste your time calling hard money lenders when starting out because they want to see a couple properties you currently have.

For instance, if the county sued, you want to make sure the school district also joined the suit.Texas allows lenders to lend money to borrowers to pay for property taxes, and that is a tax lien. 

Or do you mean auctions of foreclosed houses where the lenders who end up with the houses auction them off?

How do they compare to other local listings?