But at a high level, I want to know property taxes, insurance, and utilities historically (and most importantly, VERIFY THESE YOURSELF).

i have not dealt with this in a bit , but i know there are issues on windows ( egress ) they seem to change almost monthly . i do believe the fire marshall will do an inspection if the bank is involved . you will also have to deal with historic issues if its in a historic area :( what area did you buy ?

It was actually pretty historic legislation.

Historically I would have anywhere between 400-700 30 day views and was fully booked 90 days in advance. 

Historical returns are around 8-10% - most investors do better but there are a lot that do worse

I found Costar starting to get lazy when they used to have actual rent rates but now giving ranges which is useless.We encounter alot of data while doing searches for our clients so save the historical info to spot market trends. 

Real Estate is historically stable or at least generally takes longer to see the effects of market conditions than other asset classes such as: stocks. 

The one thing about California is historically it's appreciated a lot over the years so there are some investors still buying here.

If you need to evict, it is somewhat easier if you at least know who you are evicting and have some historical references and family info to provide attorney and/or collection agency.

Some want to be in the hot markets, but you need to know those markets historically tend to be more up and down with valuations.