@Dylan Badinghaus I'm one of those people who believe a correction is coming soon, so I think the thing to do is keep saving and being patient and wait for the correction to happen, when values are much better.That being said, if the cash is going to burn a hole in your pocket if you don't invest it, then here are some things to think about.First, how long is your holding period?  

But insurance paid the truck loan off, and, The insurance sent a fat check sent to my house.

Been burned by bad coverage in the past so I don't want to repeat that in the future.

I read about burned out landlords and vacant properties but struggle to find the best way to find/get contact info for them....

You are gambling and it could burn you. 

Market rents have gone up slightly but I'm still burning negative cash flow and am scared to death of a large repair/capEx item or vacancy issue coming up.I am absolutely cherry picking extreme points in time of the historical market cycle for so cal, but the idea of the second scenario does scare me. 

The reason I say that is that while you are right - you are burning money on rent, a bad deal is NEVER better then no deal.

I don't know what @Chris Eaker is talking about. 1/3 of the year it's grey and rainy, our mountains burned up last year during the drought, and the market is getting over saturated.

Yeah I'm not sure how hands on you guys are but it really depends on your current financial situation and how passive an investment you guys want.I just think it's a lot easier to get burned out of state too--taken advantage by property managers, bogus lawsuits, ie replacing a roof--do you know the cost?

Everyone says if you are highly leveraged and there is a market crash then watch out your going to get burned.