You'll probably want to look into having your assets held in a living trust or some other kind of trust if wishing to avoid probate in California.As to your question about the mortgage, there's a federal law that the attorney might be referencing that generally protects transfers into a living trust from causing the need to refinance, but would need more details to discern.

I am happy to assist and have a detailed discussion to go over potential options to help if you would be open to it.

I can disclose the property address and details if you would like to chat.

A fixer is generally where I buy but I'd buy turnkey if the cash flow is there.What about something like this: https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/120-Sand-S...?

Specifically I now track month end account balances, maintenance expenses and have a detailed list at my fingertips of the tenants that are late on their rents.

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.The City of Detroit has 183 Neighborhoods we’ve analyzed.PM us if you’d like to discuss this logical approach in greater detail!

I should be a little better at getting through the contract and the other detail tasks.

For more details on driving for dollars, check out this article from BiggerPockets:   https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/driving-for-dollars

I will hire a local person for emergencies and other stuff but wondering if anyone on this forum had specific details.

The key is to understand the capital stack, who is in line in front of you and what are their terms.The people who are getting burned may have known there was debt in front of them, but did they know it was short term or variable - did they know all the details to make a good judgment on the investment.If a property had 20 year fixed debt at 70% would you take that over 3 year debt on a variable rate at 50%?