Why don't you guys live in East Bay and use the commuter train to work/live between south bay and east bay, there're still affordable and decent housing in area like livermore,tracy and even Manteca.Livermore SFR costs $300-$400K, train: 50mins  (compare if you drive to campbell/san jose from sunnyvale or palo alto, it's still one hour since traffic is bad ).Tracy SFR costs $300K: train: 1:20minsManteca SFR costs $150-200K: train 1:40minsAnd it's much much much more beautiful than South Bay.Leaving South Bay is the best choice for me...

Out of those two zip codes, 89015 is the better choice, but it really depends on what part of those zip codes you are wanting to be in.

American Modern was the best of many poor choices for me.  

Your choice.

A bonus of this strategy is that I'm in a good position to do bigger/better deals in the future if that's what the market dictates.Of course they were my choices.

The midwest does have lower price-point options, we are not as 'cheap' but the influx of people moving to Florida, general demand for rental housing, and very limited new construction multifamily properties (in the $800-1200mo rental market) make this a solid choice. 

Keep looking, keep hustling, but be at peace with your choice to wait only for the best opportunities.

My point was that if you intend to create massive wealth and do so with out the difficult efforts of finding 100+ individual doors, and also do so from a passive or semi passive standpoint, then multifamily would be the best choice in my opinion (or something similar like other commercial class buildings).Thanks for your comments David, I think we are the on the same page and your last comment allowed me to respond with more details.

I know that, at first, option b sounds like the clear choice, but I am worried that I will not be able to afford to buy the house AND pay for the repairs.

Bill and I agree that getting the deed is the best choice, period.