I like @Russell Brazil ‘s approach.

If I were asked to identify the main hold up it's the fact that I haven't been able to find a decent deal, so I am thinking of changing my approach in the following ways: 1.)

Similar to @Yoann Dorat, my first approach would be to try to get the tenant out as soon as possible.

Long Story short, how do I approach private investors or find them?

We'd like to better understand property value vs. rental prices, but our current approach of going on rentfaster and clicking different listings feels very inefficient...At bit of background: We've got $120k in savings and are leaning towards 5% down.

What real estate investing approach are you most interested in pursuing?

An equity cash out approach may be an alternative source for you .

They may have a market or if not, they can approach the excess or specialty market.  2.

Anyone willing to share their approaches to the current market, West Coast or otherwise?

I think the better approach is to combine an installment sale (453) with a monetization loan.