However, this has historically never worked out well.My husband and I used to be bleeding hearts for some of these types of "helpers", but after we discovered 1 living in one of our projects (explained why he was taking so long to finish), and 1 who hired his wife and her friend to be his grunts (not the best idea for manual labor), and 1 who brought his dogs (yes plural) to our flip project where everything was sparkly new...and then wasn't because dog slabber was the new finish....we decided that we needed to save our bleeding hearts for passion projects that didn't involve our RE business.  

Being situated between Woodland Hills and Encino, I would assume Tarzana's prices should eventually blend with its two more expensive neighbors..tarzana is a premium market to woodland hills in every way.... not sure what you are looking at but historically and currently tarzana is premium encino premium to tarzana, tarzana premium to woodland hills....especially south of blvd 

The initial cash flow will not be as great as Nashville or Cleveland but historically the rent appreciation will result in greater cash flow than Cleveland and Nashville and the property appreciation will make the ROI much better than Cleveland or Nashville.So my recommendation is determine where you want to live and then use the VA loan (assuming you qualify) to purchase a duplex to quad. 

If you buy at the highest historical prices for the development, there's no room for improvement, no matter how much money you dump into it. 

We are analyzing a purchase near Vista and our partner on this effort looked up the following:1. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/14292365: Small studio rental in same area; historic converted carriage / barn = $100/night with 14 nights booked so far in May = $1400 for month2. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/9351161: 2bd/1ba guesthouse same area; non-historic and bland = ~$95/night with 24 nights booked so far in May = $2280 for month3. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/17674810: 1bd/1ba same area; non-historic but well designed = ~$90/night with 19 nights booked so far in June = $1710 for monthYou probably would want to do more similar analysis on Vista before proceeding with the STR route. 

We are still at historically low rates, and most folks feel rates will keep moving up over the next couple of years.

Its confidence in the value of the market and ideally that confidence needs to be backed by historical trends and data plus some knowledge about the area of investment and its evolution. 

I do a lot of work in Historic Charleston and my contingency can run as high as 50%.

Plus you’re 26 with still historically low rates and 30 yrs ahead of you.

I think concessions make the seller feel like they are paying for the closing costs even though they are not in that situation so that could be why historically seller concessions make your offer weaker.