But I sure wouldn’t tackle it without being very experienced.

You'd probably need to tackle that as a rehab project so no one faults you for pushing for a lower price.

I'd rather not spam the thread replying to everyone individually, haha.  

Do you have the time, ambition, and skill-set to tackle some value add renovations? 

I'm waiting to be a little more experienced before tackling the southern california real estate market.

Some will have prepayment penalties, that's something I'd suggest avoiding that way you can refinance once you're back on the job.Anyone licensed to broker mortgages gets spammed on a daily basis by end-lenders offering these programs, it might not be crazy at all to be upfront with your lender on your expectations re: rate/terms, and tell him to open his spam folder and ask around for which of the spammers balances being reliable when it comes times to actually fund (people spamming me are mostly California only) with rate/terms.... your full blown hard money lenders charging 3 points and 13% to rate with a brutal 3 year prepayment penalty are certainly the most reliable, and the ones promising Fannie-like rates/terms are the least reliable -- they want to get 10 applications into underwriting in order to cherry pick 2 or 3 to actually fund.

I think what I've been leaning towards is like some you guys mentioned possibly using another lender or HML in order to tackle something bigger while not completely exhausting my funds.

Find someone that is willing to take you in and do tasks for them in return for knowledge and training.When you know what you need to know, you will eventually grow up and learn what it is to be a responsible adult.THEN you tackle investing again.You simple are not at the right mind development to play with peoples lives like that. 

But once settled, I have money set aside to start tackling BRRRRs too.

Hi Steve, I'll tackle this from a lender's perpsective.