Best of luck on your journey—excited to see you crush it! 

And don’t overthink—your first deal doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to get you in the game.You’ve already taken a big step by asking for guidance, so keep that curiosity alive and stay consistent —let’s crush it!

Ask yourself: Do you know ANY highly successful real estate investors or sales pros who sleep in, waste time, and still crush it? 

Reading your profile it seems as if you are absolutely crushing it in your market.

You'll have a slight disadvantage compared to the local population, but nothing that should crush you.

You earn way to much W2 income to not own more properties its just CA is crushing your dream and passive income.If you want to see examples feel free to reach out I would be happy to show you what I mean by sharing which counties and areas. 

They are absolutely crushing. 

and to be clear, that doesn't make them "wrong," or provided in bad faith, it just means - best case. like, no dishwashers breaking over and over for no reason (ask me how i know about that.) if you look through the forums, you'll see posts from other folks who bought turnkey properties, and then got crushed by a long vacancy period or a rough turnover...not trying to be discouraging, just realistic.

What’s not working right now is traditional long-term rentals—high interest rates have crushed a lot of those deals.

Hypothetically, if the base were to relocate or dissolve, that area would get crushed.