Even the CEO's younger brother decided not to hang around - whatever his reasons are - it's too late for him unless he returned all the money he took out and fully disclosed  every illegal act he has personal knowledge of BEFORE the SEC/FBI show up at his door.I referred the "fronter" to a whistleblower law firm, but who knows if he followed up.

I just know I don’t have the knowledge yet to find a deal and a lower price point is appealing for sure.

The lessons you learned the hard way in 2008 will be invaluable now, and it’s great that you’re aiming to stay small-scale and within your comfort zone of Sacramento, which gives you an advantage of knowledge in that market.Given your experience, I'd say start by focusing on three key areas to build confidence and minimize risks:Budget Control: Over-renovating was one of the big mistakes you mentioned.

I recommend you go visit a few times to network with local investors or find an investor friendly agent so you can gain local market knowledge, find off market deals and for things such as showings, picture taking or getting accurate comps.

Possibly partner with a group but would only do money lending or group in exchange for gaining knowledge of how to independently do things.

Find as many investor meetups as you can as the knowledge others have are invaluable when you're first starting out. 

I've done plenty of deals without and agent, off market not even on the MLS but I'm one of those wholesalers that did things properly, had qualified buyers before even reaching out to sellers and strictly stuck with assignments.Biggest problem is so many "wholesalers" barely have the understand of a deed or what title insurance is so there's an immense amount of knowledge they need before hand which can just be provided to them by getting a license!

They are designed to protect the seller (I have disclosed this), but not to substitute an inspection by the buyer.Sellers can only disclose what they have knowledge of.

How limited is your knowledge base?

In my experience cap-x is the rarest of knowledge and actions to most.