TurboTax has rental property features, and the IRS has a great guide on rental income, deductions, and recordkeeping - IRS Rental Property Tax Guide.https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/tips-on-rental-real-estate-income-deductions-and-recordkeeping2.

If you cant get a contractor to go with you, there are guides to estimate rehab costs until you can get some solid numbers from a contractor.

I'm beginning to speak with a couple of different CPAs in my area and hopefully they will be able to guide me in the right direction. 

Research AB 1482 or hire someone that is familiar with it to guide you.  

Here's a detailed guide on how to screen applicants: Application Screening Guide

There’s a lot of potential there, especially with its population growth and strong rental demand.Since you’re focusing on single family homes and aiming for long-term cash flow, it’s smart to start by clarifying your strategy (fix to rent, buy & hold, BRRRR) to guide your decisions.

While investing for capital gains is generally pure speculation and even though real estate is already very expensive, you will get nice capital gains is history is any guide.

Use Real Estate By the Numbers as your guide, make sure it tracks the loan pay down and depreciation and have all of those numbers pour into a Schedule E.

Great, there is a lot of guides and resources on managing properties here, and analyzing deals.

Reading Vanessa Peters book “the busy professionals guide to passive real estate investing” and in it she has a chart showing initial investment of 100k, 8% preferred return, 20% cash on cash return including sale of property, and 5 year hold.Each year she shows $8k return (years 1-4) then a $168k return in year 5 including the return of equity.