By trade and training, I’m a marketing, finance, and strategy guy, but at heart, I’m an entrepreneur who loves working with people and building meaningful connections.Real estate has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, and now I’m diving in to carve my own path. 

This also may be a good way to get an in working for someone with more experience since being a new wholesaler who doesn't even know where to start makes it very hard to start.Also, don't start telling people you are a wholesaler before you have marketing going out, a small buyer's list, and at least one property locked up because everyone wants to be a wholesaler, but it's not actionable until you are in the game.

I have great relationships with contractors and other trades to do rehabs, so nothing is off the table.

You like the action of getting out so I see that is no good reason to buy.Cool yer jets my man.

And, they generally bring forth action when a neighbor files a complaint and the fines/remedies can be painful. 

With margin trading of 20-25% of initial investment, when stocks market collapses with dollar cost averaging as a strategy  , leverage of the initial investment in stocks, the AAR can be more.comparable to most syndication (compared to 20% down payment in real estate).I have been following BP forums for the last 4-5 months and have spent almost 4-500 hours.

You may want to see if the actions you do as a wholesaler allow you to claim real estate professional status.If you can, you can potentiall offset the wholesale income with the rental losses.Discuss the above with your CPA.

Best course of action here is to make a WY Umbrella LLC that owns the CA and any future LLCs.2.

What actions should I take first?  

Also, I strongly urge you not to make a habit of going into transaction planning to trade terms based on inspection report findings.