First, you can continue as is and at best continue to have that feeling of being “trapped”, at worst “burn out”.  

You don’t want your hard-earned capital trapped in a place where you have no say and no leverage. 

You will very easily fall into the trap of a bait and switch if you don't actually take the time to research the companies and ask the right questions. 2.  

I had a raccoon problem 3 summers ago and ended up trapping and relocating 4 and then when the tenants stopped leaving their trash out where it was easily accessible any remaining raccoons moved on somewhere else.

Obviously vacant homes has sewage smell from the drying up of the plumbing fixture traps but this is much worse. 

I can see an explicit exception in CA Tax Code § 17561 that says you can not use the qualifications in Section 469(c)(7) (Real estate professional) to render that income as non-passive, but I see no callout for 1.469-1T and, as such - as a non-CPA - I do not (yet) see a reason why we cannot follow the same rules for CA that we do for our federal taxes; e.g., if the business is not a "rental" business per tax code, we count that income as non-passive and offset other income (W2, etc) similarly.Does anybody else have some guidance (or opinions) on this matter?

These are traps. 

Get a cheese steak at Kirks for me - best cheese steaks anywhere including the overrated tourist traps in Philly.

They can help you avoid "trap" properties that look great on paper but would be difficult to rent out or maintain.Nothing beats seeing it in person.

@Duke Marquiss sadly a few years ago i didn't think so smartly and fell into the trap. while I didn't spend some crazy 30k amount it was well more than what the information was really worth.