I bet in 5 years you'll have $3k a month in passive income and you'll feel like you're on top of the world.

lol... seriouslyI always looked outside of the BA and California because I thought it was too expensive, but now I just want to keep my money here as I feel it's a lot safer/lucrative of an investment.My long-term goal: Net cash flow of 4K/mo so I can stop bartending and only work off of referrals for my RE sales job (if at all) because RE investing is what I've always wanted to do full-time.

But as @Jeremy Gunn already said, property managers are usually gonna be your best bet. 

While some of us (including myself) would think that buying something that doesn't cash flow is stupid, if thats what the market cap rate is, thats what it is.Ultimately, I'm guessing the reason they do it is because they're betting on appreciation and/or combination of appreciation, principal paydown of rents,that rents go up so eventually it will cash flow positive.

I would say Quickbooks Online is probably your best bet.  10 units isn't enough to pay more for more sophisticated software, but it certainly is enough for things to get confusing!

I'm betting you will. 

I am thinking about writing a full post about my property management experience in the future, after I make some changes.So that was more answer than you bargained for I bet.

If dad will pay a month (I would not bet on it), it would give Mom time to find a place. 

Some investors will ONLY invest and rent in the city, because of the high ROI (as far as property cost goes) and there's others who only do outside of the city because of the "safer, reliable" areas (often comes at a much higher price).

., land, value added commercial turn around, and bets on neighborhood changes.I believe its most important for a real estate participant to understand where he is on the real estate spectrum, i.e., investor, in the real estate business, or a service provider.