It is a bit scary making a long distance investment, but I have multiple people on the ground who are co-investors, one of whom is managing the property. 

You've shared an abundance of investment wisdom within a very short post. 

The PM can make or break you--being remote, you will basically be at their mercy to deal with problematic tenants, find tenants and keep vacancy low, collect your money, find contractors... in short, every aspect of actually running the business. 

It’s walking distance from Mercer. 5 minutes away and you’re on campus.

Some did good but few had bad luck with tenants/vacancy/ or other emergency that hindered with mortgage payments and had their properties go into short sale or foreclosure even with a decent paying full time job.

In short, CA is very business friendly, landlord friendly...not.b) And how do you propose to "separate out asset holding from operations side" ?

When that life emergency happens and a tenant can’t work, even for a short time, section 8 kicks in more rent so you still get paid. 

This is done often in short sales when the irs receives nothing.

One particular strategy that interests me a great deal is short-term corporate rentals.

However, if you are looking at short term flips, the chances of you getting screwed on stock market skyrocketing during that short period is slim so it may workout.