LA is a good one, but I'll use a different example.Property taxes in cities tend to be much higher than those outside the city.  

In a nut shell we have identified multiple underutilized 1960's era 5-20 unit buildings in our area that we believe would bring in higher rents if upgraded.

I look up deals all the time in Dallas and I have found properties that can cash flow but renting a home for 1% of the purchase price seems nuts.

You tend to need to bounce around until you find them.

When selling a property, landlords tend to show lower maintenance.  

You can even ask him to list out material and labor separately.I tend to ramble so I hope some of this made sense and was helpful.

I tend to disagree with other folks in general (not the necessarily the posters here) where they mostly said get a property vacant. 

The deals I buy nowadays tend to be complicated, hairy and/or distressed properties (usually off market) or in one case a result of a yellow letter campaign.  

In a simplistic nut shell, people finance investors, or people sold their house and who took back owner financing (a deed of trust or mortgage) and a "note" will sell their future cash receipts for a lump sum.

Its not that we want to gouge tenants but when we get a house full of students they tend to think "mommy and daddy" are going to clean up and fix everything they leave behind.