People who still buy in Tulum today are hoping that Tulum will become another Playa del Carmen but that is very unlikely to happen for several reasons, the main ones being:1) Unlike in Playa del Carmen, it's impossible to buy a property close to the beach and certainly not at a decent price;2) Given Tulum's current and upcoming urban planning, it'll never have anything close to the 5th Avenue that made Playa del Carmen world famous;3) There is hardly any land still available for development in the area where visitors want to be in Playa del Carmen.

My question: does anyone know of programs with The Department of Housing and Urban Development, the City of Los Angeles, or any other programs that assist landlords in bringing older properties to modern standards?

A population that will be responsive to government programs (aka vote buying), and to create a society that is not cohesive. 

The biggest and newest legal play is in charging landlords with discrimination against someone who has served his time and paid his debt to society. 

Whenever you are buying a property out of state you should do a few things to ensure it's as smooth as possible.Don't buy in the roughest neighborhood in the urban core.

This could be anything that positively impacts the market's growth potential, such as major infrastructure development, population growth, new job opportunities, or urban revitalization projects.

I strongly agree with @Alexander Felice that the most valuable books to read are not those offering the latest idea du jour on motivation or management principles but rather those that force you to evaluate society and your role as a part of it. 

In addition, this is promoting the corpretocracy that is very apparent in todays society.

Finally had to give that up.If you own, manage, and maintain a C-class portfolio in an urban area that you also live in, one of the basic rules of hands-on landlording is that you must never outdrive, outdress, or outcrib your tenants.

Point is - the government/society wants good little worker bees who don't ask questions.