There are opportunities to start investing in all the areas you said, fixing them up may not be the best route to go at first just because that takes a lot more getting used to in the market (in my opinion), not that it is impossible, just a better route to take for your first property.

As far as what you are asking, it will be very tough, and probably impossible.

Beyond the sheer volume of work and little demand, even getting consistent data is next to impossible, and the reason why results are hit or missed is the bigger reason to invest with groups.I.e.

yes, it is tough here compared to other markets,  But not impossible. most of the time they don't start out at 10%.

Almost impossible. 

I’m living in Bay Area where finding deals that generate cashflow is impossible.

This is one of the problems with housing in lower tier markets because on the surface they appear to be great value but capex makes it impossible in many cases to keep them up and running and therefore the cash flow from your spread sheet rarely translates to reality.

This is exactly it - it is impossible to know the future. 

Therefore, it is common for LL to be responsible for heat and water, which can get very pricy in cold months, but the cost to change out boiler is nearly impossible to justify.  

.: RAD encourages investors to make them hard money loans (that are really unsecured) with a 20% interest rate because the "REIT is full" or there is "a waitlist" to get in on the opportunities. pretty tough if not impossible to  take on 20% long term debt on buy and hold / rent model.. its tough at 10% let alone double that ..