A friend of mine, Ryan, who invests heavily in Baltimore, realized his interest costs were eating into his cash flow.

it is not user friendly at all.

I think you will learn a lot from it; Is This the Most Beginner-Friendly Way to Start Investing?

This one I did 50/50 with a friend makes it way less stressful and allows me to do two projects at once without overdoing my risk tolerance. 

Your job will be to find an investor-friendly brokerage willing to teach.

I’ve seen this issue in San Diego, where a friend of mine worked with a city planner to rezone a lot for duplexes and triplexes.

There may be some lenders that might be a little more "borrower friendly", but I haven't found them (nor do I have the time to look for them).You might be able get better terms if you "house hack" by getting an FHA loan, but I don't generally work with those loans.

I lived in LA for a decade and we have many friends, family, clients and community members suffering and send our sincerest condolences to all of those experiencing and affected this tragedy. 

I had a broker friend look into the address.

In 2008 a friend of mine spend $300,000 to buy 100 houses in Detroit.