The whole area is a wildfire area.If you use an agent, use one on the mountain. 

I've have experienced investors in my market tell me this. 

Most cash buyers get their deals from agents.

Sorry to hear you are experiencing this.Everyone listed on the lease remains responsible for rent/property damages.

Today's buyers and agents are much more savvy than they used to be and will usually call the city to check permit status.

And others still are raising preferred equity to inject liquidity into the deal.My question for the experienced capital raisers on this forum is this:-What’s least bad?

I'm getting started in the real estate investing world and am almost ready to buy my first rental.I’m debating between two different investment strategies and would love to hear advice from experienced investors here.Would you a) buy a two unit and house hack with 5% down (all cash in around 40k) in an appreciating area with a little bit of cash flow every month or b) start BRRRR strategy right away out-of-state in a C neighborhood.And a third option, if you have the ability to do both concurrently, which one would you start with first?

Getting your RE license, house-hacking, wholesaling, REI meetups, talking to agents, sourcing from code enforcement, etc etc. 

You should not pay $99 for a lease agreement when you have a real estate agent who helped you buy this property.

I would go with a company who has multiple properties under management (ideally over 500 to really get the benefits a scale, think cheaper maintenance visits, experience placing tenants, lots of investor experience, ability to find deals within the brokerage, massive marketing channels for properties, systems in place to handle problems, experience handling a massive amount of problems, discounts for bringing multiple properties to manage).Also, make sure your property manager is motivated, experienced, and growing!