My friend was selling the land nearby How did you finance this deal?

With your current plate full, starting with a turnkey SFH lets you learn the ropes with fewer headaches.

My own thoughts are that you can own fewer properties in CA to built long term wealth vs. buy a lot more properties in other states. 

The best of both worlds is the wet spot and a hill nearby.  

Some services provide numbers that have been involved in litigation, so those are the ones you should definitely remove from your lists.If your lists are hyper-focused, you might manage to get by with fewer removals from the DNC list.There are also non-DNC-related methods available, such as direct mail and digital marketing.

So, for now, keep saving and learning about those markets or ancillary markets nearby that have better options.

If you can, focus on building a team and exploring nearby markets with better affordability.

In my ideal scenario, I would do some more entry level projects to start off while I learn the ins and outs, but my goal would be to eventually work on more luxury flips - larger scaled projects in more desirable neighborhoods (though fewer and farther between).  

I think if people were a little more aware of/ comfortable with the fact that these human psychological booby traps not only exist, but are very easy to fall into even for the educated/experienced/professionals - it's how we're wired as animals - maybe fewer investors would get taken for these rides.

@Mary AinsworthFor my flipping business, I prefer to use fewer software programs to streamline things.