I've never been but the photos I see it's always Large newer homes or SFH on a large piece of land.

@Jimmy Lieu makes a good point to invest where large companies are investing. 

As far as Lance Kawaoka's claim that the reason there wasn't much response to a post about checking on the quality of a large, well-known, super-markety sponsor is that members wouldn't want to declare that they are a high net worth individual just doesn't hold water.

After a rough first year where I lost money for 8 months followed by another 4 months of learning how to self manage remotely, I had a great 13th-25th months where we have kept the placed booked, kept it profitable, and largely reinvested into the property.Here is the question though-  to buy the first property, my wife and I used a HELOC on our primary and used that for the downpayment on a new property,  for the furniture, appliances, etc, and all of the other little costs that go into getting going.  

Here's a link to the data: https://mred.stats.10kresearch.com/infoserv/s-v1/vwxv-Zs5What this data shows at a Macro level is that the Chicago market is doing fine, but the market is too large to use that data to make any decisions about where you want to house hack.

For Livermore, the activity is slower compared to the general Bay Area so you would need to be more cautious on picking the right property to flip, and the margin has to be large enough for it to make sense.

For example, if the property you are buying is a development property, like a small house with a large lot in a developing area, then a small negative cash flow could be okay if you can carry it.

The success rate will hinge largely on location, type of property, and cost of property.

I also would like to reduce the audit risk due to large bonus depreciation. 

You don't understand what I'm saying regarding Market Analysis, which is understandable since it would be hard to explain in this limited format.