It is all about your comfort level, but for me and many others on here they will note your better off investing that money in a deal and learning that way then spending large sums of money on gurus.

Long term I anticipate construction costs will generally soften as the high-rate environment continues and stifles development.

So I started from scratch 3 years ago and purchased one by one 10 rental single family houses in the last 3 years, all in my 20 miles neighbouring environment upstate NY.

I am sure there are deals to be found in Contra Costa and Alameda however the entry price is daunting in my head and I feel more comfortable getting started with something closer to the 200k and under.

However, if this is during an economic downturn when default would likely happen, there might be no equity in the house for the original seller, and I can't see how a seller would be comfortable being ultimately responsible for a mortgage that might last 20-30 years.

@Mark TaleonCashflow and appreciation in this environment of high interest rates are hard to achieve at the same time.

I have more than 20 whole homes under management so I am pretty comfortable on how much they make and who I am targeting as a client. 

I supposed if the structure is valid, it comes down to being comfortable with the borrowers, the projects, and assets that are being used as collateral. 

The combo of the current rate environment, the current prices of most properties, and the current rental market makes cashflow much more difficult these days that it was a couple years ago.

Based on this, I felt comfortable doing a screen share with with an investor client and one of the agents on the FIG team.