In my market (lehigh valley PA) I can get this done for around 5k or less including the units, materials and labor.

That it has a strong "base case" cash flow from the house-hack, and that it has multiple avenues for material upside, combinining live in flip and house-hack concepts. 

Cash flow is tough from my little experience in this area.

The tough ones are Education Debt.  

Although I rarely watch any of the gurus promotionial materials these days, the 40k flip program caught my attention enough to watch the pitch, especially when I saw him mentioning N.E.

You will want to perform a proper dry out of all materials and replace as needed, treat the area and have the lid put back together of the downstairs unit.

It's a tough loan for a bank. 2nd position, guarantor wont underwrite, single tenant deal, short lease, cash out deal...

>but quickly realized that trading time for money wasn’t going to be enough if I wanted to create wealth while living in California.I think you are entering a tough market.  2.5 years ago (before interest rates doubled)  it was a much easier market.  

You can reduce this risk by purchasing materials and then paying the contractor in increments.

Quote from @Mike Dymski: Has to be tough to grow or maintain a real estate investing podcast right now with so few transactions.