No longer can buyers underwrite to $1,000/unit payroll and $250/unit insurance expense. 

Those can indicate poor management, deferred maintenance, difficult and expensive upkeep like ocean front which will bring up issues with rising oceans, insurance, and hurricanes. 

Anyone speaking in "sure-thing / simple" terms, I call BS. 

He had insurance on the S-Corp for one million and none for himself.

I'm unsure if I would use property management at this point, and there would be some insurance.  

The bay area has many old houses so be aware of what it will take to being them up to code and meet insurance requirements.

Yes, you can deduct related expenses including gas, loan interest, insurance, etc. using the actual vehicle expenses method to deduct auto expenses for your rental or other businesses. 

Several options you can explore to get the down payment capital: Solo401k; HELOC on personal residence or from equity of the SFR; Cash Value Life Insurance Policy; Business Credit; Private Lenders, to name a few.

And given #3 above, it leaves about 20% of rent for all other expenses like property tax, insurance and other PM expenses like leasing fee, eviction fee and other minor expenses like for e.g landscaping, pest control etc.

Prices are through the roof, Insurance cost have skyrocketed, maintenance cost are up a lot, taxes.