I would need to figure out the building and land, mortgages, contributions, improvements and such.

Setting that aside, I don't believe its realistic to buy a home and turn around and flip it without making any improvements.

To what extent does landscaping typically add value to a property for the purposes of appraisal and re-financing, compared to other improvements? 

In my case, I wasn’t sure my land qualified because it was essentially my back yard, but because it was always a separate lot from my house, I was able to still do it because raw land without improvements on it is always considered investment property.

What you are not including is vacancy, capital improvements, turnover costs etc.

One of the things you can start doing is reviewing your credit score and work on improving it if needed.

Let someone else buy the fringe areas and improve them first.To be direct, I can't imagine an appraiser using 5-year-old comps.

But I also sometimes think owning only 1 property in LA would be less stressful and a more reasonable mortgage payment would improve my quality of life.

Ideally AI could improve the property analytics that shape listing prices, a competitive advantage over other brokers.

I’m always looking to improve my process and would be happy to share some insights I’ve gathered on deal evaluation and contractor management.