They have a window for owner occupied buyers first, to promote home purchases to increase homeownership for those renting and you come in and represent yourself as one of them, and buy it, and then flip it for a higher price?

Hi -How have others handled it when general contractors have increased the cost after the job was complete without an agreement for additional work.

It seems to me that because of the increase in the standard deduction with the tax reform, that I don't really have a big enough mortgage to get any additional tax benefits. 

Others say it will increase our premiums and we should pay a lawyer to handle it ourselves.

I have a lot of confidence of on-going short-term rent appreciation (next 5 years) but less confidence of significant on-going property appreciation (I expect a leveling off but am not real confident of any prediction).High end homes (bigger and more expensive) have worse cash flow than middle class or working class homes.Note a small multiplex or your 16+ unit will experience similar rent and property appreciation to your SFR and have better initial cash flow (it will be poor initial cash for San Diego but increase with the rent appreciation).To summarize, SFR are not the best buy n hold investment option in San Diego. 

The current rent is low for the market so there is a potential to increase with total of $300 plus the garage is not rented at the moment which is an extra $150 .I will appreciate any opinion or thoughts!

Ypu need to be in a position of having no debt, significant savings, a good credit score and high consistant income for 2 years running to qualify for financing.

I can try and post updates after each month to see if my expectations are consistent with reality.   

We have been reading post after post for the past two years from (1) members who are fed up with the market (2) members who are having a hard time starting in a hot market and (3) members who have highly appreciated properties but don't have an alternative investment option if they were to sell or exchange.Deal flow is king in this market and you have to (1) put hundreds of deals through the funnel via marketing and networking or (2) you have to invest with someone who has it.I made a decision two years ago to do more of the latter...to start heavily vetting passive opportunities with experienced sponsors who have mature deal flow pipelines (i.e. deep broker relationships, industry leaders, full time staff dedicated to deal flow, consistent off-market properties)...while still casually vetting direct owned opportunities. 

If your goal/strategy is to build a nice nest egg for retirement and not replace your current income (not knowing where you are in life), then netting 5% while padding your future isn't that bad of a deal, especially since there are ways you might be able to increase that 5% through property and operational improvements.