Second, what do should I do before approaching the homeowner to ensure I can legally acquire the property. 

You have target  to pay off early to create more equity so right approach will be lower interest rate.

.), I need to sell the property (approaches 10% to sell a property), and I take on all the risk of unexpected events. 

Their approach is "pressure tested"... it's been through all the market/economic changes. 

Most episodes of bigger pockets mention value adding But often with minimal advice Is there a book , podcast episode , different podcast that can be my guide for the best approach to value adding I’m about to buy my first live in rental property

Also I'll be incredibly happy to stop delivering pizzas and kick my feet up one day!

One bad tenant can easily approach 20K in damages and you need to insure your expense calculations are based on the life of the property not just the next 12 months.

But I understand that building a rental portfolio that will cash flow is incredibly hard in LA.

I wanted to put this out there as a contest to ramp up responses and ideas for creative financing approaches to see who can help me in figuring how best to structure the deal to minimize my risk, increase learning opportunities during the process, and maximize returns in light of minimizing risk.

Hey BP World!I have found that many of my investors have been having issues with fraudulent private money lenders down here in Florida.With that being said, I was wondering what types of precautions can be taken when ...