Just do all of your homework with regards to the numbers you use. Also for safety I would depreciate CL rent numbers by 5-10%. What someone asks for on CL and what they get in reality is much different. I would also add in a few weeks per year for vacancy. Also budget a little bit for repairs and such.
As sdr said in another post there are rental opportunities but you have to be patient and look for deals. He mentioned 1 bedrooms. As an anecdote I bought a 1 bedroom in Mission Valley as a rental in 2003 and held it until 2007. I was cash flow nuetral on it +/- 1/2 percent per year. I bought it for like 152 I think and sold for 200k. Could have sold it for much much more if I would have let it go at the peak. However I was blessed with 1 tenant. Had it rented the week after I bought it and that same tenant ended up buying the home. So that was not a cash flow play but a rather fair appreciation play. Also it helped on my taxes each year because of depreciation. I had other stock losses that were used to offset the cap gains on the home so that was nice as well.
With the amount of financing you are throwing down, it will be challenging to get cash flow opportunities no matter what you buy. Personally if something was cash flowing less then 1% for San Diego RE I would not do it but that is just me. If the appreciation is stellar maybe… but the numbers up there you threw out do not make any sense. Also you need a spread sheet that has all of the costs including HOA and other things I mentioned.
