If you choose to live in a neighborhood -- to paraphrase Oliver Wendall Holmes -- your property rights extend only as far as my nose.

Buy a decent pair of needle nose pliers and watch a few videos first.

And you can go an entire successful 30 year career without ever learning it.The only "workaround," assuming the tax code is being followed and everything is accurate there, is finding a new lender, one you have some reason to believe is more competent in this very specific niche.... you don't go to a general ear/nose/throat doctor if you need brain surgery.

In the mean time, I have been nose deep in reading, researching  and YouTubing trying to get smart on it.

I had the same mindset for awhile and kicked myself from the deals ive missed hope in now and when the market drop dive nose first

I'm also a CA investor who does a lot of out of state work, and my absolute favorite market now is right under your nose- the portion of Indiana nearest to the Chicago & the IL border.

A better nose for finding deals? 

Sat on the market for 18 mo as people turned up their noses at the mustard yellow aluminum siding - which I can replace for about $6k when I get to it.

I turned my nose on single family rentals for the longest time and ended up buying one because the cash flow numbers were way to difficult to argue with.

Most of them can’t organize the time effort and resources to pick their own nose .