@Russell Brazil, Delusional is a perfect way to describe most of our politicians these days, that's for sure. 

@Russell Brazil,Are HDR photos the new trend these days?  

Malaysia is nuts, almost as bad as HK or China or Singapore.

The land lease could be bought out as the values in the area had gone up so much but when they have  the numbers for the land as land is so expensive  now it just killed the flip transaction. so in a nut shell it depends

@Russell Brazil my mortgage is contingent on me occupying but I brought the situation up to my lender and being able to close with a tenant in for a few days is not a problem.  

. $3k month is a big nut to sit on, and with winter coming you’ll need to heat the place.

Thinking through this it's easy to see how a property manager most likely won't make profit on the 8% fee, that just covers the monthly nut, but on up charging for maintenance and evictions.  

Welcome, @Andrew WilliamsonSoCal can be a tough nut to crack for newbies.A couple years ago I mailed out lots of letters to homeowners across LA County with no luck.Then I tried rural Kern County and got a deal from a distressed homeowner in California City.The margins were not as large as they would've been in LA or OC, but I was able to rent it out for 2 years before fixing it up and selling it for a decent gain.Also, have you considered an owner-occupied small multifamily for your first deal?

Thanks @Russell Brazil and @Stanley Kong!

I actually had a kind of similar experience/dilemma but in different industry, I was trading oilseeds/grains from dubai but had decided it was time for a career move and I wanted to switch to trading cacao/cashew nuts sourced from Ivory Coast.