Quote from @John Busch: Truly appreciate the multiple responses and look forward to continuing our communication as we live in Southern CA and do not have many contacts in that part of the county. 

Hindsight Critique•Continue to build relationships to increase deal flow•Property manager (Mercer Hughes) is critical to completing renovations and quick tenant placement•Continue to build relationships with private lenders and personal investors•Have cash available to make quick competitive offers Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

You have decent cash flow that you'll continue to accumulate, which you could put toward a deposit later for another property. 

As you discover opportunities, continue looking for the longer play!

What I would tell you is that as we built our portfolio we continued working our full time corporate (cubicle) jobs until we had 20 units (self-managing them along the way).

I can only speak to myself personally but I've continued to invest, knowing properties may not cash flow much but I've invested in value-add so focusing on appreciation.

Focus on cash flow to align with your long-term goal of a remote ranch, and continuously educate yourself while networking to identify opportunities and partnerships.

I hope my entry into real estate will continue this trend.

At this point, instead of continuing to pay the interest loan payments on properties that we will never be able to financially finish since the rehab loans will not cover the actual cost of the rehab, I wanted to know the ramifications of returning the properties to the loan servicer, deed in lieu.

When you do that, you can get better pricing and leaves less room for error.The best advice is to push forward as quick as possible, fail forward, and always continue to introspect on what you would do differently and then ACTUALLY go back and implement that change (easier to say than do).