Most likely though South Central, East Los Angeles, or somewhere like silver lake, los feliz, downtown are probably the most ideal locations. 

@Justin Mayne i deal with this sort of thing often with folks buying houses for us to manage. 

A couple fun things included taking an old second-story deck, doing an addition in that space, we created an entirely new Master Suite.

Just picked up a duplex in 63111 which for you, would have been ideal.  

Is it an ideal layout, no it doesn't sound like it, but generally speaking renters are not as picky as buyers.  

Ideally, you're paying for the profit an asset is creating, not could create.

Using your personal credit card is not ideal as it will negatively effect your credit score and your DTI.

@Tim Sipowicz if you are planning on refinancing you wont have to worry about getting your reserves stuck in equity for long since 75% of your ARV appraisal will ideally be high enough to cover the down payment + rehab + closing costs + holding costs.   

I’m just wondering if you had the ideal 25k that is so hard to get that Scott Trench talks about in Set for Life, what would you do with it?

My husband and I opted to buy in the beach areas of Guanacaste, after visiting both regions, because we thought the remoteness and longer wet season in the southern zone would make a house harder to rent, and also shorten the ideal times of year for us to visit.