Hello everyone,I'm a Software Engineer from the Bay Area, looking to start investing in small multi-family units in Sacramento for passive income, but am also open to SFHs for flipping opportunities. 

This is the gray area that I find to be most troubling as individuals with no experience are being taught to work in this gray area to raise money from individuals who likely believe the sponsor credentials are more robust than they are.

If you have a background in structural engineering, get your GC license.

Or is it necessary to walk through with a structural and MEP engineer and a contractor before putting numbers together?

Go to your favorite search engine and look for "pay rent online" to get a long list of options.

Ask yourself how many properties you are wanting within a given time period and then reverse engineer what is needed to get there.

It's extremely robust.

I myself is an architectural designer/structural engineer. 

Robust GDP growth and deflation, albeit slow, are holding into the holiday season.

@Ran Fridman the main issue most owners run into early on is that whatever tool they are using for accounting isn't robust enough for tax time.