I looked pretty hard in 2009-10 but couldn't figure out the management angle so I passed. 

I have a 2 car wide 2 to 3 cars deep driveway / yard (1/2 of it is paved 1/2 is not)  for my 2 family; the longest sitting tenant gets the paved half; and new tenant gets the unpaved 1/2......

Has anyone ever thought about picking up old shotguns (10-12' wide), moving them to more desirable areas, and then refurbing them?

There are many here who work the MH angle, they may have other comments. :)  

There are several big realtors and home builders here in Houston that are quite active on radio and TV.If you're trying to hit individuals who are in the market to buy or sell now, it's not very efficient because only a small percentage of the people who hear your message have any interest in buying or selling a home at that moment.All of that assumes you're buying time on a large mass-appeal radio station with a market-wide audience.

So, already you can see a wide spread in fee structures.

I recently sold an investment property to an investor in Point Breeze (18ft wide, 1500 sq ft with 4 beds 2 baths) that needed to be reframed and have everything redone.

Opinions do very widely on this, but in my view the SoCal markets are very difficult.  

City wide, I think the area appreciated by around 8% from last year to this year.

I have a degree in construction management and have a wide knowledge base in building science, energy efficiency and building new homes from the ground up.