As far as I know, the city of Napa is the only city in the country to actually arrest and imprison a person for running a non-permitted Airbnb. 

@Andrew Allen my thought on out-of-state investing is that if you already have a connection to another part of the country, or have serious plans to move to a certain part at some point (e.g., you know you want to retire in X), then it's worth spending the time and money getting familiar with that area, acquiring some local knowledge, building a team and relationships on the ground, etc.Otherwise, if you intend to make it a purely "passive" investment without spending that time and money learning the market, I'm not a huge fan - that's not the right spot on the risk-reward curve for me personally (obviously, other people have different experiences and opinions.)But for me, I'd want to spend the time really getting familiar with a market and building a team and relationships, before investing there.

I am thinking about a fairly last second trip across country to attend the Intelligent Investors Real Estate Conference 2020 in L.A. - https://www.intelligentinvesto...Since it's going to cost an arm and a leg when you include travel and hotels, I wanted to find out if anyone has been to it previously and, if so, was it worth it?

Once upon a time,
there was a 5 acre parcel in Marion County, Florida. It was split in
two, bequeathed to heirs, then eventually sold to myself and my
nephew. He is living on the smaller parcel. My parcel is vacant...

Is Bay Area diff from the rest of the country now?  

The cost of labor & materials here in San Diego is among the highest in the country and you will need a very good contractor you trust to take you down that path.

I know we wont know until we get under there but fingers crossed!

Maybe a commercial lender can cross collaterialize both properties to get the cash you need.

Across the country the general price for water is about $7/1000 gallons.

Maybe they switched phone carriers, maybe they are on vacation and out of the country so no cell service, etc.