Your mortgage has nothing to do with your taxes.Here is a very rough starting point, however the actual calculation will involve more details:1.

I have the money to buy now but I would rather do creative financing and use as little money as possible out of my own pocket. looking to start with BRRR method but maybe should start with a wholesale first to fund that?

I'm actually not familiar with Privy at all!

SF is a very unique market, and actually may be a great time to buy right now, especially if they can successfully turn the city around. 

Real estate investing is forgiving; the average person can still make money even with some big mistakes.

I would love to hear from those who have actually invested in these areas vs. realtors/real estate agents.  

Every day I mark how many calls to leads I made, how many people I contacted (and was it email, call, text) from my database/past clients....how many social media posts I answered or made, etc.I don't know if that's automating, but every week I can quickly see how much of each money generating thing I did.Do you use Google Calendar? 

Deal 1: 4 Plex (it's stripped down to studs, a guy ran out of money on the rehab)Purchase price 160k, Rehab 80k, Total all in: 240kExpected Rent: $4,000/month to $4,400/month depending on how quickly we want to rent the units out. 

Let them know you are shopping and tell them to give you their best offer (all on the same day), and state you will go with whomever can save you the most money. 

There are very few instances when cost seg won't help you on a rental property, but when you deploy the actual cost seg will depend on what you need on your taxes.