Not all PM companies are effective at selling real estate.

Most markets are seeing full price or above for listings, so I am not sure this strategy is going to be very effective. 

Do you have any tips on how I can properly analyze my deals effectively?

(still a good option)Bandit signs can also be pretty cost effective but just be ready to hustle and put these signs all over town (not a big fan of this approach, but I know many wholesalers get massive deals from these) In the beginning I had more hustle than money, so I hustled more using cheaper marketing methods such as these.

I am an infantryman in the Army (so not much I can transfer over to the civilian world other than being able to manage people effectively).

If he/she thinks they can help, I would be happy to reach out myself.The basis of my questions is rooted in which approach would ultimately be more cost effective.

With COVID and politics not effecting the market YET, there are numerous more changes coming to the market that NO lender has experienced.

Given the SoCal prices, the unknown future effects on real estate from Covid and elections, it might make sense to continue saving up so that you can make a GREAT purchase in the near future, rather than a decent purchase now.

The repayment terms for a 401k participant loan are equal monthly/quarterly payments of principal and interest (typically prime plus 1%) over a 5 year term (longer if used to acquire your principal residence).Please note that if you take a full $50,000 and then pay back the loan, you can't take another $50,000 until 12 months after the first loan was fully paid back.Per the loan offset rules that went into effect with the 2018 Tax and Job Act: if you leave your job and the loan is current at the time you leave your job but then the loan goes into default because you left your job, you will have until your tax return deadline (including any timely filed extension) to make the loan current by depositing the outstanding balance into an IRA (and thereby avoid the taxes and penalties that would otherwise apply).Please keep in mind the multiple loan rules:Under those rules, the sum of the balances of a participant's outstanding 401k loans under a single 401k plan (using the highest outstanding balance of each loan over the last 12 months) can't exceed 50% or $50,000 whichever is less.

If you have time to dig through tax lists and send out mailers that seems to be an extremely effective strategy for finding low-cost deals.