This new guy ended up pocketing most of the rehab funds and just doing lipstick renovations.

I have come to learn buying from these types of people just throw lipstick on a pig and say its turnkey.

(From inspection, no concerns found)Option 1:  Throw some lipstick on it, find a good CPA, sell it and roll the equity into the next property. 

In general you're better off starting with a "lipstick flip" and working your way up from there, and a 203k loan is simply a slow, laborious version of the normal experience.  

It sounds like you may be using a turnkey provider that tells you the properties are fully repaired, when they may have actually been putting lipstick on a pig.Who is doing your screening? 

The easy stuff will have more eyes on it (lipstick rehab), and typically emotional buyers that will overpay.

Do you think that contractor you hired 12-months ago cares about a lipstick job? 

Not falling for the north side new build or lipstick on a pig trap so mainly looking into forest hill, lakeside, an some other areas around the city. 

Several things excite me:  rehab or "putting lipstick on a pig", the entrepreneurial bent to real estate and flipping, and project management. 

If things go wrong with a Cali project, it can cost hundreds of thousands.My people who want to start, I take them to affordable markets and look for lipstick projects.