Investing in real estate is like planting a fruit tree, it is going to take ~10 years to start bearing any fruit.

Hi Chris,Start by networking through BiggerPockets, local real estate meetups, LinkedIn, and self-storage investor groups.

Also, would you say Sacramento still has strong opportunities for buy-and-hold investors like myself looking to get started? 

The National Association of Realtors says that the average profit on a flip is is $15,000 and takes 6 months from start to sale.  

Three months after I left the first PM,  I started receiving emails that they were being investigated for fraud.

If you plan on living there, I would pick the place you want to live, then start investing.  

See the fact that mortgage rates are up about 1% from Oct when the fed started to cut the fed funds overnight rate as evidence. 

I will try and get answers for the questions, but eventually if the risk is more, probably move away from the deal.

However if we start up a LLC and perhaps buy a couple of cheap properties free and clear to put in our LLC we’ll begin to strengthen the LLC and put it into a position to borrow.

I would like to start acquiring multi-family rentals but a) don't have a lot of capital to put in myself, b) nor would that strategy allow me to build a portfolio within a reasonable time frame.