Additionally, they managed to refinance while the rates were at historical lows (and still somehow cashflow negative ik 😭), so any loan methods that involve changing those rates are not ideal.

Find Brandon's videos on YouTube for the "four square" method of analyzing homes and practice.

Even though I had a full size W/D on site, I still used this method.....

Options ive looked at are the Burrrr method, house hacking with fha living in the property for a year doing small upgrades and forcing appreciation refinance then rent and repeat that every year until we reach our goal.

Internet search ADU lot split “San Jose”Here is one search result that is what i am suggesting: https://www.reddit.com/r/SanJose/comments/1e7lhkv/san_jose_b...Good luck

And given that, in a major city, there are hundreds of houses put on the market weekly, you need a method to efficiently screen properties to make sure they won't bleed money before you spend time analyzing, touring them ect. 

Some of it is due to his questionable methods of getting reviews on Bigger Pockets.

Post on Craigslist seems like another 'guru' but I cannot put my finger on it, he seems to be following Cherif method, not sure what to make of it.

Quote from @Blake R.: I wanted to get involved in land investing and made a post about it during the summer and have continued to look at it until now.I was questioning if I should trust a land guru in my area so I asked about it and got some feedback.So then I have searched for land investing education programs and a name was at the top on google and I saw he had a lot of information out there.I did research on him and watched a lot of his videos and it all sounded good but I heard him talk about how he now owns over 1000 doors in multi family, so I started thinking about it. 

So I'm strongly considering adding a handful of these to my buy & hold portfolio.I understand that there's no "risk-free" method to acquiring these properties subto, but have any of you had success over the long-term acquiring properties with VA loans attached?