@John Archer You said it yourself:  "It almost seems too good to be true". 

I can't seem to find anything on how to do it.

Or what seems crazy to me.Is it legal to create a 501c3 organization to buy investment properties and rent them out at fair market value?

Considering the high interest rate, the projects and COC return seems too good to be true.

Problem is I live in SF and this seems like a really daunting market to get started in.

Assuming the neighborhood doesn't change substantially and still warrants a 15.6 GRM on its buildings, you should be able to sell the property for $2.5M ($13,4000/month x 12 months x 15.6 GRM).So if you bought at $1.5M, spend $900K on the renovation and ADU build, then sell for $2.5M, you haven't really earned that much for your efforts.So, yeah, these improvements don't seem worthwhile at the prices you've been quoted, but again, your quotes seem wildly high.

This seems to be such a fine line.

I spent a lot of time here before, but the time was just never right to get started, but things seem to be falling into place now.  

Most lenders seem to have a 6 month seasoning period, so I can’t do a cash out refinance right now at 3 months after purchase.

Ya that does seem high, but I do know that they went up earlier this year and they're making an effort to increase rents to compete with the all time high cash rents in the area.