RE can be like 50 poker decisions all at once. 

I believe the other companies I've seen do $50 after the 3rd.

If you have a $100,000 loan at 3.75% and that goes up to 5.25% but your able to get another 50-100k out the additional cost on your current loan is only $1500 per year which is a small price to pay to go create some other opportunity that over the life of that second investment can yield you $50,000-$150,000.My biz partner told me years back, "Don't step over quarters to pick up pennies", which to me most of the time translates to calculate the money you are not making by taking that next step vs the money you are trying to save.

Anyway, I have read much about the 1% "Rule", but there just doesn't seem to be any houses that could qualify for that due to the prices.

I guess we can do a walk through and discuss the price in advance, what are the rules of thumb for figuring out a fair price for repairs, cleaning, maintenance etc. ? 

do you know and understand the CA ADU rules.  

I started compiling a list of private lenders by going to the county recorder's office, looking at the 1st page of the deeds of trust that were recorded, and writing down the name and address of anything that appeared to be a non-bank in the section "When recorded, mail to:" It was tedious and took me about 4 hours to compile 50 names.

Most Banks only offer a 50% rental offset and a cap of 5 rental properties...

would you take $100/door if you also made a 50% increase in equity?

Not an advocate of big gov, just do their jobs efficiently and enforce the rules evenly.