Perhaps your first step is buy your primary first 3.bed / 2 bath SFH in the best neighborhood you can afford.

The only CA people that invest in the Midwest are poor people that can't afford the CA market or ignorant people that can't figure that profit trumps "cash faux" or are too inexperienced that they can't figger how to leverage into this more profitable area.The best thing a newbie can do is understand what a MARKET is.

However if you can afford it there are plenty of people who will pay to live their.

I am a 48 y/o recently divorced mother of 3 and as such it is time to begin living my dream and making ridiculous amounts of money while engaging in my passion of flipping and managing residential properties.I am the executive director of a non-profit, non-subsidized, affordable housing community.  

Much more affordable housing means fewer renters, but housing costs are less.

My main question is if it would be smarter to use the money I have saved up to purchase a primary residence here in Los Angeles so I am no longer throwing money away on rent, or if I should use that money to invest in a rental property some place like Atlanta, where I'm familiar with the market and is definitely more affordable.

You can certainly buy at that price or well below, but by the time you do renovations you are going to be above those prices.You can find tenants for $30K houses but they will tend to be market tenants that can't afford anything more.

Its all about YOUR risk vs. reward tolerance, and personal goals.I personally would say unless you have already amassed some equity and cash reserves sell now and go  do the same thing again then you will have $70k then again and have  $105k and so on...keep doing what you know how to do until you have enough cash reserves to get into the long term buy and hold game and can afford to weather any storm that may come along.Good luck.

There are also many affordable books on the subject of flipping available on amazon.

Since then, the homeowner couldn't afford to make payments anymore.