The trustee did a premature appraisal before staging and before new paint, new carpets, new furnature, and these are the results.House is at Belmont, CA  180deg.

Other than California, which I can't afford right now, the places I've been looking at and can afford...well, I don't know anyone in that area.

Will this work on a conventional loan in California?

i'm looking at Orange County, CA. 

There are some markets/small town in California still cash flow with short term rentals essentially if you can self manage and/or can do an owner occupied hosted rental.3) Stay put & sell the condo in the future to get a duplex that you can do a live in flip and house hacking one unit. 

You are in California (and guessing the property is)...contact a lawyer that specializes in evictions. 

The likelihood of all of these occurring is low in a typical subject-to transaction. its why way back in our day we did these with wraps CA has a debt instrument called an All inclusive Deed of Trust it wraps the orginal mortgage it is a second in function my dad had a company called CA wrap back in the day and did hundreds of them.. its de ja vu all over again.. he did this during the Carter interest rate spikes just like sub too is now coming to light in a big way because of interest rate spikes.. 

I'm new here and have never replied to a post BUT I have a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath in Irvine CA that I have been renting out room by room for years and it works on several levels.1. 

I live in Southern California and want to start investing in property and grow that, I only have $30k-$40k what are my best options?

I invest there from California and will be closing on doors #13 and #14 next month (duplex).The city is going through a major revitalization effort and lots of investment.