However, mine are in a historic downtown, with about 23,000 population in our county seed city (Okaloosa county) and 40 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico, sugar sand white beaches and warm emerald waters!

The acquisition fees and asset management fee and lackluster historical performance (10%ish/yr since 2014) has me choosing a public REIT instead. 

The historical value was another thing that drew me to it.

The trend of a historically high number of Withdrawn and Expired listings continues with 1,610 listings being withdrawn or expired for January.

@Janeea WrightMost of what’s near depot town is in the historical district, which I ran away from kicking and screaming.

I admire your drive that you started so early on in life:):) the SDSU neighborhood has some pluses( most important for you as a hacker, renting it around the clock and pay your share and cover the cost, also building long term equity more so with these historical low rates,, also whether SDSU or any other neighborhood in San Diego( which isn’t easy to find properties in that range BTW) is safer with the forecast that they say close to 10m households unfortunately can’t keep up with their mortgages by Mid 2021:(very unfortunate) and being at 400-500k price point it’s just safer for this climate, so lots of time for you to take bigger chances and risks in a more stable environment to achieve you goals.

We did not own the cabin last year so we don't have rental property income to show historic values.

Of course Southern California has had high appreciation historically over the long term and especially the past several years ...but there have also been big dips too. 

That can be lot size, topography, other physical characteristics, lot shape, biological considerations (such as a historic tree on the property), etc. 

With mortgage rates near historical lows, seems to me like locking in a long-term fixed rate is the wise thing to do.