You should do a careful financial analysis to see how much rental income you might make compared to the expenses and potential challenges of being a landlord in California.

It served as my primary residence & rental income for a few years.

Here are the details at a high level:Purchase price: 174,000Closing costs: 2,000Down payment: 20%Rental income: 1525Monthly expenses: 487 (insurance + tax)Maintenance: 128 (1% of purchase price)10% vacancy: 150Self-managingI am not sure what interest rate to use to get the monthly mortgage amount.

It's not perfect, but it winds up being an additional revenue stream to them.

The tenant was placed by the property management company I was using at the time, and they either didn't collect information for additional contacts, or didn't pass it along. 

That interest is income. 

My original goal was to create $15,000 in gross rental income in 3-5 years.Now it's more simple.

All done the upgrades to other things were more expensive than the addition . 

Additionally, I would look into the various groups on Meetup.com. 

My goal has been to borrow money for the rehab, rent it out to generate income for the Trust's beneficiaries, and then do a cash-out refi to recoup my down payment and any other out-of-pocket expenses.I believe there are limitations in an Irrevocable Trust, which would prevent me from simply deeding the property to myself or possibly even to an LLC if I create one, even if the end result is in pursuit of my fiduciary duties to the beneficiaries, as Trustee (i.e. making the home inhabitable and generating rental income for the beneficiaries).