@Aaron Dixon Welcome to the bay area.Lot's of options and differing areas all within an hour radius.House hacking would be a great way to enter the market here.I'd suggest deciding how far (long) you are willing to commute and narrow your buying / living range accordingly. 

As of right now, all I see are properties in the 140k range with 10-12% CoC.

The transfer fees/taxes for the deed can get into the $400 - $500 range for each of these. 

Stunning nature with the Pacific ocean and gigantic Santa Monica Mountain Range out the door with year round near perfect weather.Close to everything from Malibu to Calabassas, Ojai, Santa Barbara etc and within the same 45 min to 1 hour distance ( traffic depending) to 3 commercial airports, namely LAX, BUR, SBA.The university, USCCI is the only one of its kind growing in leaps and bounds while general enrollment numbers are in decline everywhere else along the CA coast.

The Data base was basically the I 5 corridor from the California Oregon Border to Just South of Tacoma Washington between the coast range and the Cascade range.. we had about 11k parcels identified and that was our list.. we sent some mailers but it was almost all telephone work.. once we had the data base we used the reverse directory to find the phone numbers now keep in mind this is pre Cell phone..

Most range from $30-$50.

Stats on the house:Approximately 2400 square ft.1st floor -            - two full bathrooms, 1 large living room (14x16), 1 small living room (10x12), and kitchen(10x12)2nd floor            - One large bedroom (14x16)            - Two smaller bedrooms upstairs, but you have to walk through one bedroom to get to the other.Comps in the area range from 220k - 300k.Rentals Comps would be 1700 - 2200.The front of the house seems like it would be "picturesque" for small venue events. 

.- Total cost of these projects would range between $390k-$550K.

So to use this strategy fully it would take a few years to put in place.In the later years of your policy, the fee are very low (in the 0.25% range).

.+  Waterfront property prices range from $500k - 2M.+  Across the street properties start at $400k.+  I am all in on my waterfront for around 600k and bring in about 50k income.