Long term rentals are unattractive in CA imo especially since you can earn a lot more with different rental strategies even doing mid term rentals will still probably be more profitable than doing a long term rental.As far as hiring a contractor or bringing in subs for each item that will come down to how much you want to be involved, you'll save money finding and subbing out individual jobs but it will take you longer and you will need to manage everyone you hire and contract to do business with whereas a contractor will manage all that for you but there will be a premium put onto the price obviously for that. 

If a limited partner is in a tax bracket (earning less than 50k per year) approximately how much would they owe in capital gains after the asset is sold? 

My intention was to minimize my reported taxable income after taking expenses against the earnings through the LLC.

I can't even count how many times I have seen posts on Biggerpockets from struggling investors trying to rent out Section 8 properties or D class properties out of state.Everyday there is a new post from a Newbie Investor who put their hard earned cash into a dud of an investment and cannot figure out why they can't find a solid tenant, why their tenants don't pay, or some other horror story related to investing out of state/D class real estate. 

For conversation sake: It seems you are well into your career to be able to buy great properties and sell for great value/profit.

What are some careers paths or jobs that allow me to pick up experience that will help in real estate investing while working for someone else? 

I’m a Marine veteran who has spent most of my 15 year professional career post service in project management across multiple industries like aviation, hospitality, tech, and CNC machining.

If you collect all the money on January 1st, you earn one month of rent in January, one month in February, etc.

I don't know your entire situation, careers, commutes, etc., so only you can decide what fits your budget and your lifestyle best.  

You could invest passively by being a private lender (earning high interest), being a money partner (getting equity and a return for no work), investing in a syndication deal (similar to money partner but on bigger deals where you are one of many investors), buying another investment property and hiring a property management company, or investing in stocks.