I have a tenant in Los Angeles in a rent controlled unit which was initially rented to a husband and wife. Wife recently notified saying he s moving out and terminating lease as she is dicorcing. The husband stayed ba...

The amenities continue to improve and there are still several massive public/private initiatives in the works like the Hostess block and the East-Central plan. 

Give us dates before “prime season” and block the dates ahead of time?

Know values of houses in every block of the area you're looking at. 

South Richmond can be very block by block so unless you are familiar with the area or have boots on the ground I recommend looking elsewhere, as others have mentioned.

This can presumably at minimum force a sale on whatever asset the Heloc is secured by unless someone has the cash to satisfy the loan. freezing them seems to be the most common.. i saw a ton of that in the last melt down and I suspect there is a bunch of it going on now.. people just dont realize it because it usually takes the bank 60 days to get the letter out.. they realize it when they go to access it and its frozen.. but did not see a lot of banks actually foreclose.  

I have solid conventional W-2 income and I do have a prequal letter in hand with a lender who already qualified me for a purchase price that's much higher than most of the cash deals I'm seeing as well so I think I'm covered there.

It's very neighborhood specific and even block specific. 

Sometimes a demand letter is enough to put these things to bed.  

A huge factor in your decision should be location, Philly is considered to be very block by block.