thanks a lot for the warm welcome. i anticipate a good and wonderful time together. surely i will have a lot of questions to ask, but for now gracias !

But anticipating the 26 hrs on planes I booked it all 1st class. 

Most banks either sell the loans to Fannie/Freedie, or adhere to their guidelines, which for 2-4 unit buildings, its max 75%LTV for purchase, max 70%LTV for cash out.So with your anticipated value of $275k, your max loan would be $206k (purchase) or $192.5k (cash out).  

Anticipating calls from these leads and preparing an offer that may or may not be accepted.

Be very conservative on your ARV (final sale could be 10%-15% below your asking), don't forget to factor in construction overruns and discovery work (typically budget a 15% cushion), don't forget to budget acquisition costs (6%-10% of purchase price), selling costs (6%-10% of ARV) and holding costs (be conservative it will almost always take longer than you think or than your contractor tells you and may take more time than anticipated to sell and for buyers to secure funding).  

In sunny CA you may only need the pylon to be deep enough to support any anticipated static loads.So rather than a contractor you may need an Engineer.

I'm anticipating that the first deal will have the greatest learning curve, but ultimately my goal is to develop relationships with contractors and come up with a process to make flipping as efficient as possible.  

Maybe the drop in interest rates is creating a buying frenzy, but the Spring rush is here much earlier than I anticipated. 

We ended up being able to fund the repair on our own salary but that wasn't something we anticipated in the beginning. 4.5 year laters after lots of dedication, some lots and loads of crazy we have 8 houses and are working on our 9th. 

Yes a house needs to me maintained, I just didn't anticipate that it would be SO much work and SO much money on a home that was literally gutted and entirely rehabbed with brand new everything.