One-on-One coaching DIRECTLY from the "main" guy/expert - avoid groups with "sub-coaches" (<--these are put in place because they can't handle the volume of new members)..makes you wonder if they're focused on building a coaching empire and making a ton of money from that - OR focused on building a successful real estate portfolio & focusing on the success of their members. 3.

I've lived in Wesley Chapel and I still live next door to WC in Land O Lakes.

Also your comparing the highest priced areas of CA with lower priced to medium priced Texas. if they ran comps on  Sacramento gold country  East bay  inland empire etc etc.. there would not be this huge difference..

There is also tons of free training on YouTube from experts like AirBnB Automated, there's a Tai Lopez interview to Arbitrage Mogul Brian Page, on Tai's channel Empire of Entrepreneur, that has some teaching gems as well...

Can anyone comment on what wind coverage is costing new purchases as of late, maybe not beachfront but 1-3ish miles inland?

I use Empire Property Management for my small MFH portfolio. 

I moved to SoCal about 3 years ago and find it challenging to get in this market...its taken me 2 years of filing tax returns just to be able to secure a standard mortgage...plus prices in my immediate area are significantly high....my plans are to look inland, but until that happens I've been finding good deals back home in Canada.I started investing in Hamilton back in 2011 when everyone i knew from the GTA thought i was nuts....all i heard is that it was a steel town, dirty, bad tenant pool blah blah blah....back then there were all sorts of deals...but sure enough things have turned around and prices are significantly higher easily double in the last 5 years.  

Build an empire.".

So as you step through owning 10 units, 30 units, 50, 100, 200, and maybe one day a few thousand units, it starts to scale from a hobby, to a living, to more money than you know what to do with, teams of people running around managing your empire, yes employees and all that comes with it! 

For the price of a condo near the beach, you can find a multi-unit property inland that has more ability to cash flow or at least bring in more rental income.