Bridge Loans are short-term (usually around 12 months) at a higher rate and fee to get a borrower from one point to another.

Long distance investing/managing is an obvious for me since I move every couple years, but I retire from the Navy in 5-7 years, and I'll finally settle in one place. 

There aren't many "short-term, get rich quick" type investment options in SoCal today. 

I also own some long-term rentals and a short-term rental.

Long story short, the simplest way to look at this is to add a 0.5% or 0.55% to your FHA rate and then compare that to a Conventional option (note rate + PMI rate) priced with 1.75 discount points.

Have we gotten to a point in this industry where a property is more attractive by short changing the true fundamentals and classifying the property an affordable housing opportunity? 

Quote from @Cristiana Rios: Hey Duane, I’m Cristiana, and I’ve spent the last 10 years building and leading teams in the short-term and mid-term rental industry across Airbnb, VRBO, Furnished Finder, Booking.com, and 20+ other platforms.

Lancaster city limits short term rentals to only certain zones of the city so definitely look at the city website for that information.

It'll be confusing in the short term, I think people assume it's inflationary.

Why don't you share a bit more about where you are in the process, what you know about investing in real estate, what your goals are - short and long-term, and tell us a bit more about why you are asking your question here on BP?