There are a lot of creative ways to acquire property with little or no money, but one of the easiest is house hacking (buying a multifamily, living in one unit and renting out the others).

I have successfully acquired these properties in the past and I am currently pursuing a few.  

Otherwise, you'll eventually run out of money trying to invest only in the Bay Area (FYI: I live in Berkeley and also own rental properties throughout the bay).If your goal is growth/appreciation, make sure you focus on timing your acquisitions with real estate market cycles so you're only buying at or near the bottom and you're adding signicant value by rehabbing.Like to follow up on a couple of your comments:I own several properties far East Bay acquired 2012 time frame.

I just acquired a property in Hillside NJ and want to give it a new contractor.

For the state last in the nation in education that is saying something.The only people who live in these areas are those born there with no vision to escape or some upper middle class folks looking to acquire acerage and rural areas.If your goal is to own a property to attract the worst tenants in a very small and undemanded area then this is a great property.I hope I am not being too vague in my opinion here.

We’ve recently acquired 3 perfectly suitable brrr properties and hope to learn as much as we can to better understand how to find good deals.

I am very interested in utilizing the BRRRR strategy to acquire multi-family properties while continuing to flip properties in order to grow my capital.  

My only issue is I live in California and always have; therefore, I am not familiar with the market but plan on moving there within the next few years after acquiring a few rental properties.

To acquire the property, the buyer will need only $702,000 in equity plus amounts sufficient to fund the seller' s replacement reserve, insurance and real estate tax escrows (such escrows are held by the lender for the borrower' s benefit).Would that mean you only need to come up with the $702,000 to purchase? 

I don't know if its better to use my larger purchasing power this year to buy a fixer in Dana, stop paying rent and then slowly acquire the New Mexico rentals or get started now on New Mexico and continue renting.