@Melissa Sejour a good property manager will give you a lot of information that you care about.

@Moshe MarcianoI recently helped an investor from Orange County purchase a single family home here in San Diego.

Quote from @Lawrence Mitchell: @Jaycee Greene  I'm looking to obtain insight about single family homes and potentially elevate to multi-family properties.

I've seen some people house hack a single family home by renting out the rooms, but keep in mind that traditional lenders would not be able to use the income from renting out the rooms (known as boarder income) towards additional income on the application.

Well, a large number of our members are rental home/apartment investors but there's plenty of other RE opportunities out there. 

It is usually pretty significant and might tip the scale in your favor to get them to accept your offer. 

Because 0-5% down does NOT happen unless you are owner occupying the home.

They didn't pay for it, so they don't take care of it like an owner.Before you make assumptions about costs based on a seller's contribution to improvements, find out what they improved? 

You need 6" clear from ground to bottom plate, and ground must slope away from house...5) Any place that water can enter the house (doors and windows, skylights, where roof meets eaves, etc...) should be checked thoroughly, if it's not raining on inspection day, you have to be really careful with this...any suspect areas, put a hose on them....

I would start by finding areas you actually WANT to live and go from there.Picking a place to call home simply because it has a real estate market that you feel will fit your goals is a great way to end up miserable.