My son is battling addiction which is where I discovered what a sober living home is.

Likely battle scared and forever changed - but you WILL get through it.

The reason for the delay is because I initially thought I'd invest in low cost areas of California like Fresno, Bakersfield, Stockton, Sacramento, etc (due to being somewhat within driving distance of the SF Bay Area) but I held back because California's landlord laws made me very concerned.I didn't want to end up in drawn out court battles with a renter just squatting at a place I purchased with my cash. 

Big enough to have some staff and some marketing reach, local name recognition, battle tested, etc.4.

You can argue that you can get an education somewhere else, but without a strong community, you will face an uphill battle in your multifamily journey. 

I still consider myself fairly new to this world, and I can say with 100% certainly the biggest battles are the internal ones, and this industry has given the pleasure of being forced to address several of my short comings, and continue to address them all the time.I find I get the most emotional when I get reactionary, so my constant focus is around honing and suppressing reaction as a whole both internal and external.Thanks for taking the time to write this up.

If you do research ahead of time, what are some red flags that would cause you to back out of a deal or add a couple thousand to the deal cost for legal battles/ cash for keys?

Glad that your wife is on board - that's over half the battle!

I’ve completed two rehabs and currently have 10 doors between the two cities, so I’ve had some experiences and have some battle scars.

But a lot of newbies have trouble grasping how much of a battle this type of investing is going to be.