after 2 consecutive years of 0% rent increases on 1 year leases and now only a very minimal increase they are proposing a bill that, (ready for this one??!!!)

I had a friend (non investor, yet) that said I should buy something that needs minimal work.

A great deal will minimize your risk, and you make your money when you buy. 

But life happens, and to be closer to family (and also minimize my commute to my day job in biotech) I think I am going to put my current house on the market and look for a multifamily property closer to Albany/Berkeley or on the peninsula.

Dark green means it has not been looked at yet) so I just click on everything to "clear the map".  

Of course I will make errors but how do I minimize the downside and maximize the upsideWhat folks books videos are recommended to start this journey

Your profile is extremely minimal. 

Now the repairs are super minimal, less then 5k easily.

If that's what you're looking at there isn't much to think about (other than it's go dark value and ability to re-lease).

The return numbers are good enough that if the risk had been minimized I could work on raising the remaining down payment to get to 25-30% down.