I'd recommend considering the East Bay.Here are my random thoughts: no flipping unless you're experienced.

If you are considering a CRM for a team, then you have to consider the ability to customize and generate management reports.

As long as the cash flow exceeds your PITI, it can help offset the debt, but lenders will have different criteria on how they calculate this.For your second question about a duplex with seller financing, while the seller may still hold the title until the loan is paid off, the rental income you generate from the property could still be used to offset your DTI.

In San Francisco, this choice is taken out of your hands and is instead a determination made from and by the Planning department.From an Investment POV, you are absolutely correct that combining the lower and the ground floor units is the best option to preserve your ability to perform a fast track condo conversion and generate the most equity in the shortest amount of time.

Many investors only look at projected returns and invest based on that, and therefore don't realize that the property is barely generating cash flow, because they are getting a 7% return day one.

Given that your primary goal appears to be generating cash from flipping, there aren’t many tax advantages available in this scenario.

These are areas where I find I can generate best return on my building Improvements & that’s where I’d recommend you focus any spending. 

The result of this project was a successful sale at $260,000, generating a significant return on our investment.

I’m fairly new and the problem I have is I don’t know what I don’t know with the software and marketing so I wouldn’t know what features I would or wouldn’t want to track my key monthly KPIs and track my marketing and lead generation results per lead channel.

If you could generate enough income to where you are living free that would be so great.