Presumably you can also protect against this with the aforementioned neighborhood growth trends.A lot of money has been spent and lost trying to use the best information out there to determine local buying decisions at the property level.

Call agents locally that are doing 25-30+ deals a year and also property managers..

I started a local investors group.

The site I used made it easy to compare local quotes and find affordable options without compromising on quality.

Does not have to be local, since these are mostly general issues, not State (I've used advisors in other states but for other issues). 

My local loan officer said I would be able to get a loan up to $450k, if I rent my current home out and the property, I’m going for is a duplex+.

, what made you feel secure taking the leap with hard money and going after that first flip.Partnering with an investor or doing seller financing would be ideal, but I'm still growing my network by cold calling other investors and real estate agents and attending local events.

I would not venture beyond your skill set and suggest you risk harming yourself, such as getting electrocuted, however, once you have completed your work, have it inspected with the local building inspector.

Thanks for your local insights-

We have tried reaching out to numbers of local CPAs in the Sacramento area to have them help crunch the numbers and haven't had any luck at all.