Double check your lease, all the legalities and still check with the landlord....

I would like to shadow anyone who is experience in this lane of investments.

While I am not in San Diego, I spent some time out there last summer (Ocean Beach) and loved it!

Consider starting small by house hacking a single-family home, renting out rooms, or adding an ADU if possible.

Buy out partner with Paper.  

You're taking a great first step by joining this group and seeking guidance.

The goal of hard money is to get out of it as quickly as possible. 

A way to look at it could be to find buyers first and figure out their buy box and after that go out and hunt for deals for them and run it by them when you find something.

looking longterm who knows what's going to happen in the market.The largest thing to be cautious about is that with commercial tenants you as the owner often have to put up money in the form of a check or abated or free rent to help the tenant get open for business and build out the space. 

Based on what I am seeing on the Department of State website, in order to do this I'll need to be a licensed broker.