I've seen people 'celebrate' getting $8-10k cash out, forgetting the cost of the refi was a month of pain and $4k. 

thanksRob Yes, investing out of state can be a pain!

My units are in Mountain View near lots of tech companies and I was confident of my research, so I jumped.It was EXTREMELY painful during that 18 month period, and I did nothing but work: W2, renovations, kids homework, kids sports, etc. 

Sort of a pain but it worked.Currently I have enough activity (high enough unit count, and having at least one tenant cycle out  year, that deposits get withdrawn to show activity) that it isn't an issue anymore.

It sounds like the gentleman didn’t spend enough time with you to find out your pain points.

I've done wholesaling campaigns and stuff not my thing. at least not right now it's a sellers market and finding deals is a pain in the ***.

clueless newbie  investorS are a pain in the butt to work with. 

It would have helped me avoid a lot of the painful lessons I had to learn myself.I see hard money lenders as my partners.

You can have someone “renting” a granny unit, the difficulty you might have is splitting the lot, in SB County it’s a pain, but doable.  

Each bedroom is its own suite with a walk-in closet and its own bathroom.Second, it has been a pain on our side for the last 2.5 years.