We also live in Tacoma and have a fair amount of equity in our primary residence.

Fair warning: I'm not a real estate attorney and I can only speak specifically for Tennessee as I hold a real estate license there.The act of bringing buyers and sellers together with the intention of collecting a fee is "brokering" a transaction.

I am fairly new to Bigger pockets and have been listening to all the podcasts. 

Since people pay a fair amount of taxes (similar to NY and CA) the least they expect is free of charge public services Here in LA people have to suffer a burdensome and highly dysfunctional planning administration asking ridiculous amounts of useless studies and documentation, charging insane fees for very bad services.Architects and owners have to deal with up to 10 different agencies with their own requirements, timeline, fees and applications, resulting in massive delays and costs over the roof.

There's a fair amount of owner occupants in the area.

You'll also want to ensure you have a good property manager to look after the upkeep of the property if you are not there to notice anything deteriorating or which may need attention.Creating an LLC in California would cost you a minimum tax of $800 every year. 

However, when you shop around for a mortgage, you'll get a better idea of what your local lenders have for closing costs.4) Typically, they appear to be fairly accurate, however, I still prefer to get my information from the source. 

Too many variables can go wrong and I have found using these numbers helps ensure a good and successful flip even if something big and unexpected comes up, which almost always does.What is your main source of leads?

That's very fair. 

I try to be as selective as possible and ensure both myself, my company policies and procedures and the investors all have similar mindsets when it comes to managing their portfolios.