The bottom line is this: Concealment is not asset protection, proper (time consuming and expensive, I know) management, and good, prudent, practices (ditto), WHICH ARE ADHERED TO, and insurance (expensive), are needed for asset protection.

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

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

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.

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….

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.  

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

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. 

As a business, a judge will expect YOU to know all the laws and legal procedures.Make a minor mistake and the judge is unlikely to give you a break and may rule in the tenant's favor.The judge will see the tenant as a consumer and may give them a lot of leeway in court, even give them borderline legal advice.You are in over your head, not having the knowledge to properly handle this.