Just want a decent living situation for me and my family. 

Issue is that I’m finding there are no good decent deals under $100K in areas with good school districts.

I have a good job and make decent money in Southern California.

The SFR we bought was in overall decent shape, and we forced ourselves to reframe our thinking so that we could make some lemonade from the lemons we believe we were given.

I have listened to several podcasts and audiobooks, I've read several forum posts on Bigger Pockets and social media posts in different groups, and have talked to a few of the local investors in my area, and I feel like I have a decent grasp on beginner investing.

Typically, they expect to see a lower cost of living while they're living there and are okay with that knowing they will reap the benefits of learning how to manage their rental, screen tenants, and will see equity and appreciation and hopefully, a decent amount of cash flow after they move on to their next house hack. 

Most decent deals I’m seeing are barely breaking even for monthly cash flow after i move out and are still being sold over asking price. thanks

I continued to follow them and ask questions they always responded in a genuine helpful manner.I once was down in Florida and just shot off a quick message to see if Gino was available to meet and to my surprise he was.

We rent to a decent number of younger, single women and I always recommend to them when they bring this up that they either consider not doing it, or maintaining the financial lease in their name only with the boyfriend as a resident at the pleasure of the authorized tenant - this way, when the inevitable domestic police call occurs, she has a greater chance of not being put out of her own home by demonstrating that he's only there at her pleasure and that she's the responsible party on the lease.

I’d say just buy something that seems like a decent deal.