Or any of those larger cities.Get outside the city limits along major roads.Find county or small town municipalities within 1 to 10 miles of the San Diego City limits.Learn their zoning and zoning map.Look for the biggest/nastiest piece of ground that you can bulldoze and flatten.  2 acres or greater.Do two business models. 

Coordinating that communication and anticipating potential problems, a good experienced TC may get you by but now we're getting into the zone of high risk going agentless for the limited reward of saving 6% commission. 

This implies that there are limited reasons a LL can terminate a tenant (significant rehab, lease violations, move immediate family into unit if lease indicates this).Note not being an ideal tenant is not on this list.  

For now, give him written notice to correct the lease violations--long term guest, dog, smoking with the required time limit for your area. 

But parking requirements and also city requirements on unit mix will probably limit that just keep in mind a 2 or 3 bed unit makes significantly more money than a studio or 1 bedroom and the cost to build the larger unit is not significantly more esp when you have economies of scale on a 30 unit project. 

These allow you to place a deposit on the card, and have a credit limit equal to that deposit. 

Options are somewhat limited. 

We have a purchase now for an investment in northern cal with limited appraisers in the area the turn time is much longer .

A conventional investment loan will be limited to 80% of appraised value, usually called "20% down" although if the sale price is below appraised value that gets you in with < 20%. 

However, for just yourself, I personally don't see a reason for the limited liability protection, the primary benefit of a LLC.Good luck.