As I am a beginner, I was wondering if you can help me out by sharing some tips on how to start off the first house hacking venture within the LA environment.

You are taking a loan personally from your plan, and then you are investing in real estate.Truly self-directed IRA and Solo 401(k) plans are offered by specialty providers who can create a custom 401(k) for your business that is capable of investing in anything the IRS rules allow for - which includes a lot more that just stocks, such as real estate, private mortgage notes, cryptocurrencies, precious metals, venture capital ...   

I would have been a lot smarter with my money and purchased my first property a lot earlier than I did.Aside from obviously needing income to fund your real estate ventures, I grew up a lot in college and I think that's another reason I would absolutely go to college all over again.  

Don't venture into this alone, for now always have someone with you when you enter apartments or even the building.

Any advice for how to go about a JV? I am new to wholesaling and am good at finding deals/sellers, but the back half is a struggle. Perhaps because I am a newbie. So to start I’m interested in a few JV’s; so for anyon...

Once both halves of the duplex are repaired to the market standard of the higher renting comps in the area, either used the forced appreciation/equity to either take out a  HELOC  or do a cash-out refinance to fund my next venture. 

Are you going to have some other partnership (then a joint venture agreement would probably work)?  

If you start venturing into Dallas and FW the prices increase and you will also be further from school.

Purchase price: $942,000 Cash invested: $68,500 Joint venture with 2 partners. 6-unit apartment building.20% down split 3 ways, 30-yr fixed mortgage for the remainder.Rents range from $1500 to $1800.$4800 cash flow (after operating expenses and reserves).

Again, if you don't have a seasoned investor, getting a general contractor or two to give you a bid will give you a lot of information about what it will take to sell the house for the amount the agent told you.Keep in mind, for the property to be attractive as a wholesale deal, it has to be priced low enough for an investor to make a profit after doing all of the work...If you really want to use this property to catapult yourself into doing wholesaling it might be worth a phone call to some investor friendly title agents and asking them if they work with active wholesalers in the area and ask if they'd be willing to JV (joint venture) the deal and show you the ropes so that you can get paid while learning from someone who knows exactly what they're doing, and eliminating all the guess work on your end!