I also feel I because I know a bit of about rentals and the states laws where these houses are, I have reduced some of the risk.

HUGE change for landlords in Columbus - Franklin County just removed access to hundreds of thousands of eviction records! Anything older than 3 years will no longer be viewable online. How will this affect your tenant...

What are some ways to grow in real estate aside from reducing expenses and increasing rents (e.g., buy other properties)? 

The association fees are often a larger % of the property value and rent with condos - which might reduce your future appreciation potential.

Your strategy will gradually change over time as you see what works better for you personally so don't stress about it too much right now. 

Use reduced rents, increased vacancy rates and higher cap rates for an exit strategy.

As far as I understand, to reduce complications of title transfers etc, you can form the LLC before closing and close with that if you are willing to pay the higher interest rate (even though one lender said the LLC wouldn't have enough performance history so they wouldn't close it that way??).

There are so many better and less stressful ways to make money in notes.

Reduce sell price.

@Daniel LehmanYou can potentially buy up to $1,000,000 in real estate if you get 80% loan to value mortgage.I would prolly aim for for a little less in total value so you have some funds as a rainy day fun and to also have a budget for repairs/improvements.I think it is a good idea to diversify your assets at this point in the market.I would like to see if you can get 2 3-4 unit properties in a B / B- / C+ class neighborhood.You instantly reduced some risk by transferring 2 units into 6-8 units.on a side-note, I really like San Diego.