I spend a lot of time looking at listings in all sorts of areas just out of pure curiosity and I wanted to hear what more experienced folk thought of this.

Do you mean financially or purely from an interest perspective?

@Allison Panila Based on pure speculation, it sounds like the LL imposed the extra $50/month in the hopes that it would cause the tenant to want to leave.

I invest purely based on cash flow (after initial investment, typically positive cash flow every year). 

The first property we had inspected is in great shape and we were asked to fix a handrail and replace a battery in a smoke detector( simple $150 charge for the inspection and $20 for me to fix).

Then it's hard for the defendant to claim that they didn't receive ANY of them.But purely sending an email is not "better" proof anywhere else other than in your head.

There are FTHB goodies in CA, but if you own residential real estate (including if it's a pure investment property) they generally go away because you aren't a FTHB any more. 

I think it would take me about two weeks of diligent searching to grasp a certain market - but I would need the help to discover recent sales, etc..It’s a treasure hunt; fun, exhilarating, and pure American Dream stuff. 

If it is purely about the numbers you use for every other property... allocations or %'s are the same, I don't see how you can't use that logic here. 

Yet, the most recent ones were more than double and it was a pure profit grab.