You could invest slightly outside the city or in less populated areas with less competition.

What's population there?

There is now something like 42% of the nation's population 'renting... and that number is increasing, yearly.

Just make sure the local economy is diverse and the population is growing.  

Only 5% of the population of homeowners can really be slotted to the motivated seller category and direct mail doesn't work if the seller is not motivated or curious.Don't give up!

Where do you find buyers to populate your list?

Not to mention that practically not a week goes by without a newspaper headline showing a net outflow of population (I guess people can only take absurdly high taxes, government regulations, cost of living,etcetc for soloing before they decider's not worth it.) and SoCal continues to be a lousy place to invest, compared to other, more stable and "boring" Midwest and Southern markets.I agree with the "house hack"; if one HAD to live in SoCal, possibly THE BEST way would be through a house-hacked duplex, try or quad.

What is the 5,10,20 year job and population growth in the area ?

In our county, the process of updating the abstract and getting the title opinion done takes less than a week, but in some lesser-populated areas it can take up to a month. 

A long uphill battle for sure but if I can pull it off the fish population around the world will will fear me after my retirement.