It seemed to work as advertised, but some things seemed suspicious.  

I casually advertised it some in December, now advertise it often.

I have always rented it within a week of advertising on CL in the past - the only difference is the last three times I advertised it in June for an August 1 move-in date.

Some properties went from on revenue stream to 4 different ones...4- I use the business of REI and created an LLC to defer some of the profits through to family members to help pay for their college as they are "employees" of my REI business and I can deduct (pay for their college)  As i can use about 5k a year as education expenses. 5- Since my siblings are employees of my businesses and are in sales and marketing for the business they use a wrapped (lettered in advertisement) company vehicle going back and forth to school and other business related venues.

This way you can "pay as you go" rehab instead of financing and paying contractors to do the work.The trend is that most people lose money on their first flip, with so little to invest I'd suggest the house hack duplex route.

Why not advertise on the MLS but include that you are offering seller financing?

He is doing MASSIVE advertising on major radio in Los Angeles.

When Al arrives he starts talk to the couple and I find out that he randomly picked this property and started advertising it as a rental.  

Everyone knows about the next trendy area that’s going to explode, the Brooklyn to Manhattan, the Oakland to San Francisco.

Here's how it works - advertised rate is $1000/month.