I highly suggest you to read, "The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Real Estate Investing".

A Judge will ultimately decide whether it's black, white, or gray.It's to you to be reasonable when making your deductions and to be able to explain why you made them.  

This ultimately could be making your cash flow calculations be off and therefore your ROI.  

Their employees perform a variety of functions, including water quality and law enforcement, fire suppression, harvest regulation, and even timber industry promotion.

MANY sellers (I know this from personal experience) are pricing their property just below market value, promote an open house and spur a bidding war. 

Even the ones who invest in the market, usually pay more fees and ultimately get a worse return.

You do not install anything extra in a rental that you will ultimately be responsible for maintaining.

You can ultimately turn that over to someone once they have convinced you they are trustworthy.  

I have to admit that I was expecting to see that you disclosed your company promotion at the end of your letter.I do think that California is at a peak in a seller's market but it's hard to tell how long it will last and what will be it's length of time.  

Not sure if the fact denouncing new administration will wake up to it eventually, but in my area contractors are very pricey already and further price increases will probably lead to reduced economic activity and ultimately hurt consumers even outside of the construction trades.