Obviously you tell this person that “only trusts you” to sell and pay the taxes and pocket $50k minimum more than selling to you.

The materials are outstanding and my understanding pre covid the networking and in person classes where very beneficial .

nothing pointed at you personally but there has been build to rent projects were investors had to put up 50k non refundable and never got their house built.. so I can see putting it in escrow and releasing it upon closing for sure.. thats what i personally do with my new builds although since we average 25 to 75k of upgrades per house buyers have to stroke non refundable checks directly to us for those items.

Be careful of the advice you get from unqualified persons here or in any forum.First. 

We talked for several minutes, then out of the blue he said he would offer seller finance if he found the right person to sell to.

That’s what I want to do, I tend to say “yes” to all work when new business calls but the work life balance is more on the work side.

Set for Life by @Scott Trench is a good primer to become a real estate investor.

First, check to see how many deals this person has already done. 

Thank you for sharing; as a young person looking to start house hacking as a way to be a homeowner, landlord, and real estate investor all in one, you have shared some great insights! 

I’m aware California is not the best market, with the restrictions and potential new tax coming up, etc, but we have personal reasons to invest there.With that said, we visited a lot of houses in the San Diego area and saw 2 that seem like a potential fit for us: one is a smaller 3 bedroom but a mile from the beach and the other is a 15-17min drive to the beach, but bigger with 4 bedroom and a little cheaper, which would allow us some cushion to invest on a hot tub or potential pool.