An ideal investment subdivision would have just a handful of floor plans and plenty of recent sales at similar prices.  

Alternatively, you could take the deal your FIL is providing but a couple of things to consider: - at that point your relationship will change to lender & borrower & - your income should ideally also be increasing over the years (this is to counter your point about feeling like your timeline is pushed back to purchase your own forever home). 

SO it does happen but not the ideal way to do things.

Ideally, I would like 500 to be sent out per month.  

If the latter two points are ideal, the type matters less.

Whether this is an ideal time or not, I'm looking forward to gaining valuable experience with my first house hack.

That is the ideal situation but not always the case.

So far all good news - I will have to 1031 the gains from this sale into something else, ideally a tri/quad outside of CA.  

I've been in the background here for a long time and wanted to revisit my situation.I own free and clear a 60x80 lot zoned c3 by a main hwy. option 1 is to put up a 30x50 steel building , complete it'll cost me right at 60k ready to go to lease.option 2,They actually have 2 mobile homes nearby so the city will let me change zoning to mobile home, and get a decent used one, complete it'll cost about 25-30k ready to lease.I understand it's not ideal to go from commercial to residential but I'm looking at low startup.The idea is to get passive income from my first rental.

I am not a wholesaler....I feel like in an ideal world I would  wholesale this property.