Even if you are not an expert electrician after a Summer or a year of weekends and holidays, you will know more than most and perhaps be able to do your own minor repairs and know where people you hire in the future cut corners and you will learn appropriate pricing.4. 

Would be curious to hear what people think of them.

IRR is a term used by people selling an investment to others.

That sometimes catches people via a news story or law enforcement site.Question: if their felony arrests are disclosed, why are you still looking into them? 

I’ve had a lot of people do this with me where they will lend me money on some of the deals that I do and then I will give them a deed of trust, which ties their money to a specific property that has much more equity than the sum of the loans.

I have also seen people show interest in condos and then realizes the fees/headache associated. 

Pomona's population is about 150,000 people (source Google).

Lot's of people use the term UpState, and since I've got my BP alerts set up... it isn't solely used by New York Upstaters... apparently lots of different states like to throw around 'upstate'  Anyway, I digress.  

Even the people you think would never lie or walk away from their responsibilities still do from time to time.

The prices are more closely tied to the income they generate vs what the people next door paid for their house.As for your long term goals, I am not sure starting with a duplex or four plex will open the door for owning in that asset class (larger multifamily) the way you might think it would.