A small slice if profit is better than the whole pie of no profit!

Properties can be found on Redfin, Zillow, realtor.com, etc. and normally in most decent sized markets (like yours) they replicate off of the MLS within 15 minutes.

Normally, we serve (in some States required) a 60-day Notice of Intent to Sell. 

Back in 2015 UCLA/Anderson School said LA was about 50% into this current appreciation phase and predicted a normalizing appreciation after that.

All I can find online is this is normally amortized over 84 months on Schedule A, but I'm not sure if this would be applied the same for an owner occupied rental.Thank you!

The college student does not have as much money as the normal dual income family, and that is the big reason it will be a little harder to rent out.There is always the possibility to rent it as an AirBnB; however, if the rental is in the same town you live I don’t know how high the demand is for AirBnB (something to look into though)! 

@Tony Zheng It depends on how well you target your postcard marketing, but normally you should expect anywhere from 1% to 3%.

That sounds normally and I wouldn't expect funds on top of that. 

You really need a span of 8-10 years to normalize a yearly percentage.

That is normally not possible if you pay retail market value, since if you need or choose to sell you will incur ~10% transaction fees ... without a discount, that is a 10% loss.