The goal is to complete renovation within 6 months in between guests and then refinance in the next 1-2yrs to pay off the seller in full!

I used them all as primary homes then moved and rented them out.

I even put an offer in on a great BRRRR in Baltimore’s Patterson Park but was outbid, likely by an LLC that already has its own contractors ready to go.Crossing my fingers that all goes well in the inspection and I’ll move on to the next steps of property management. 

I've also held of holding properties in individual LLCs that are owned by one S corporation, which allows for a 60 / 40 split between ordinary income (regular tax) and dividends (capital gains tax rate).With the goal of minimizing taxation and liability protection, what would be the recommendation from more experienced people here?

It also is helpful to have a California LLC in case you ever sell that property and move into another state so that you do not need to form a new LLC altogether with new operating agreement, just re-register in the new state as a new foreign LLC.

You tell them what you are looking to do, and find out what their goals are, and start building up an investor database.

The last thing you want to do is move forward with what seems like a great deal but not be able to close. 

Plus there are less moving parts that can break, need constant tightening, lost/missing parts etc.

Since graduating in 2021, I moved to Washington, DC to pursue a civil engineering career and am now feeling like I am in more of a position to start learning and pursuing real estate investing seriously.

Outline a clear exit strategy to meet your long-term goal of retaining the property for cash flow.Work with a CPA to ensure tax efficiency, particularly around depreciation, capital gains, and partnership income.