Once the work was complete, I refinanced to pay off the hard money loan and held the property as a long-term asset.This duplex also marked the start of my short-term rental journey—we ran our first Airbnb from one of the apartments before scaling to bigger projects.

Some folks love that, some don't. 

Seller was behind on pay HOA payments and in risk for losing the property.

Does anyone know of any real estate brokers in California that offers the MLS-only membership as I don't want to pay all the extra fees to be a part of CAR/NAR.

I asked if there was anything else we could try, he got very angry and demanded I pay him in full.

In fact, I would estimate that it is mostly upper middle-class folks that have the money and wherewithal to go through the vacation rental process - prepayment of substantial monies, etc.If you only have one property, I would just stick with Venmo, CashApp, or Paypal.

Long Term non-paying Tenants.

Imagine making millions of dollars over the course of your career and then having to pay 30-50% every year to uncle sam instead of compounding that cash over time.This is exactly what real estate professionals have learned to mitigate.To reduce their taxable income, they just buy a building every year, do a cost seg, and use depreciation to reduce their tax liability dramatically.Their personal wealth snowball grows much larger and much faster than their W2 counterparts who give most of their money back to the government each year.Following this strategy as a real estate professional is one of best ways to end up with a much larger net worth at the end of your career.

I also saw a lot of folks living in Uhauls and vans. 

Our current mortgage terms include a late fee after 5 days, so they’re already paying extra each month and have to split the total monthly payment up between 2-3 payments when they get their pay check.