Side notes here to keep in mind, the market is crazy right now and lenders are prioritizing home purchases vs. refinancing due to limited labor availability.

We live in unincorporated San Diego county and we purchased our primary residence 3 years ago.  

You need to compare a 100% cash purchase to 5 homes at 20% or 4 homes at 25% down.

But you have a plethora of existing landlords that are doing just fine from their previous purchases (myself included) that might somewhat stand in the way of that equalization.  

There are still flood properties around the city that can be purchased cheap and have enough margin to make money.

@V.G Jason I wouldn't let the DD prevent a purchase. 

What would be a reason to use hard money for a purchase when you know the property would not appraise enough to pull all your investment out

I'm a buyer looking to potentially purchase cheaper rental properties in rougher neighborhoods.What are some good crime maps to use to make sure I'm not buying a property within a warzone or violent crimes area?

When it was purchased in 1995, it was raw land.  

Purchasing a fix and flip from a seller that had prior issues with GC and is concerned that GC may file a mechanic's lien on the property even after the property is sold to me.