There is talent and technology infrastructure in California today that cannot be beat. 

Hi Alex,Good Job on the Flip.And you're a talented decorator too...A couple of (3) questions (if you know):[1] Who was your buyer; an investor or someone who will live in the home.[2] If someone who will live in the home what's the aprox. age(s) and job(s) of the couple--(if a couple).[3] I like the shower, it's nice looking, is it a steam room too?

The added bonus for my specific situation is that my brother is an extremely talented architect that currently "condoizes" properties and creates new buildings in Boston for a firm and would do these drawings for me for pennies on the dollar. 

They get a great, safe, steady return that is WAY better than what they were typically getting at a similar risk profile, and we get to 'make money from our time, knowledge and talent'.

I don't plan on ever holding or mortgaging the property especially since it won't cashflow.In my this sounds like a pretty straightforward play given the steady growth of the area's tech sector which I believe will actually be accelerated given a lot of tech companies are looking to open satelite offices in Canada due to the encouraging adoption of remote work, cheaper and abundant tech talent and uncertainty of american immigration causing a lot talent to move to Canada.The biggest risk I see is whether or not the specific property I buy will be in demand in 3 years:Who are the demographics that will actually be buying homes… not the 22-24 year old coming out of school and working at a tech companies but perhaps the late 20s to 30s folks who are settling with a partner and kids.

One or two of the right commercial properties can provide the income you're looking to replace and based on the description and talents of your team you could easily get there in a year or less. 

The area is always expanding the business district as well as downtown, from Access to low cost regional talent, competitive real estate cost, strong work ethics and excellent facilities for sports, shopping, leisure and healthcare.

If you don’t have the money, balance sheet or experience then you need to work on that but aligning yourself with other peoples assets or talents but  you need to bring something to the table for people to join with you.

I spotted talent.

One of the hardest things with flipping it seems is having a good contractor to work with but recently we've been working with a young talented contractor who had done some nice work on one of our properties and he has expressed interest in getting into flipping.