@John Roeder your goals are easily attainable in Kansas City.  

This is because we have agents and sellers who're gambling with the current market and trying to attain REHABBED property sales numbers.

AND, the $9,000/month in rent I was getting isn't attainable right now anymore.

I think 2% or even 1% rule is nearly impossible to attain in California in most neighborhoods and especially not in this current climate.Short of obtaining off-market deals (wholesaling) in the cheapest markets in C/D/F neighborhoods, you cannot cash flow in this mark in the SF bay area.  

I am in the process of carrying out a refinance on 5 of my properties and I want to attain  a 30 year mortgage with a fixed rate(conventional financing ). 

Right now in these low cost markets are being bought by other investors so you need to crunch the numbers on the return the property will generate from rental income at the sales point you hope to attain.

I was informed that $1100 is considered affordable housing now and attainable for these units.  

My goals over the next year are to capitalize on whatever earnings we receive from that NM flip and put it towards our first true investment; I'm also very much interested in earning my real estate license and would love to hear from you on your experience in attaining it.

And that is not hard to attain over 10 years.

Since the court date has to be 5-12 days from the date of service of the notice and you need a 3 day notice served prior to asking for the court date as well, the 4th Tuesday is easily attainable if you initiate right when problems come up.