Most states require a RE license and or Broker’s License.

It also is helpful to have a California LLC in case you ever sell that property and move into another state so that you do not need to form a new LLC altogether with new operating agreement, just re-register in the new state as a new foreign LLC.

Now, if you've already set up LLCs per property, then yes, have at least 1 checking account per LLC.For people who own their properties personally, keep personal accounts that are exclusive to RE activities so all of that activity stays separate from other personal transactions.

If I invest in residential RE, it is not to achieve returns barely above passive options.  

The best thing to get started is building your team - a lender and a RE agent who know the Duluth market!

Proximity to mass transit (mentioned by another poster re following them), proximity to downtown (maybe not so much now with work-from-home being a thing), proximity to airports, highways, pollution-belching industrial plants, hospitals, universities, the lake, etc., all help to define which South side neighborhoods have what it takes to overcome market inefficiencies and become "up and coming."

If your clients/or yourself put the time into learning and figuring out a niche in the RE world that excites you, start looking for deals that make sense and always run the numbers.

Rent control in the bay area can be extreme as many areas have rent control in excess of the state mandated rent controlIn general experience RE investors are not choosing to add a single ADU in single family zoned areas.  

Usually a plumber can pull out the old caulk and re-caulk in less than an hour.  

Correction, I just re-read my notes from last October.