I'd love to utilize their expertise when assessing a property since they are local but I'm not sure what the general expectation is when I don't have a tangible property and I have not entered into contract to work with them yet.Some questions I have are: local regulations/permitting timeline, property's potential from their perspective, landscaping/amenities cost estimate (they also help facilitate this).

One lender I have spoken with stated that the DCSR loans are not regulated. 

Quote from @Andrew Steffens: Usually there is not a way to "get around regulations". 

These carriers are not profitable in CA and CA laws and regulations do not make it easy to mitigate these financial struggles. 

One of the concerns would be, how long would this last until regulations catch on?

I think you are best served to get the best advice and that is what will make your business work much better than the ones who don't care about the regulations.

Those enormous tenant buyout amounts were feasible before the 2019 rent regulation act. 

Problem was it's a common perk for Chinese restaurants to provide lower paid staff with room and board, and without the upstairs apartment, renting an apartment in nearby towns for staff is a problem with rooming house regulations beside a major expense.

Prices there tend to be fairly high so make sure the financials make sense to you.If you're going the townhome route, make sure you fully understand the rules and regulations of that particular community.

She is absolutely crushing multi and ADU multi in all parts of LA and knows the regulations for all of these options