remember, these are NOT conforming loans, so all the consumer protections one might be used to having aren't there.

I've done my projects solo so far and it has worked out for me, however, it is time consuming and not in the position to invest all into one deal.

There are many reasons that adding a single ADU in southern CA is a less than ideal RE investment (i will post a list at the end) but the negative initial equity is a primary reason as the initial negative equity position consumes the initial cash flow and can take many years to recover.As for converting your home to a rental….

CA RE Broker ( which I have) standard state MLO and NMLS  and Consumer finance license.

Finding, developing and maintaining a 'brand' is hard and time consuming work.Let me turn the question around; As a seller, why should someone pick one agent over another.

Unfortunately, that is an expensive time-consuming process.

I think broader consumer taste is killing malls, which includes online shopping, but also even where people are choosing to live and how they are spending their time/money, more broadly.I worked for a company that bought a failing mall back in 2012 (online shopping was "killing retail" then too), redeveloped most of it into more open air power center and sold.  

In the manufactured home industry, I've heard more complaints about new homes being bought and installed straight from the factory than consumers buying older homes direct from homeowners. 

A couple of things happened in the last few months including a lump sum pay out for a retirement from a company for whom I previously worked and I inherited a modest sum unexpectedly. 

-flips and BRRRRs are very time consuming, energy intensive, and hands-on.