Sure, it's hard to get cashflow rentals in SoCal but if you have the finances to hold for several years, the appreciation cycles in SoCal can make you lots of money.Flipping may be competitive but I renovated 3 homes in San Diego in 2011-2012 and made some good money on the flips because buyers there are willing to pay top dollar for turn-key, beautiful homes.

HomeVestors, an investment company that brands itself “We buy ugly houses,” named the following top 10 housing markets for investing in single-family homes for 2014.

There's a thread on BP on crowdfunding though, here's the link, nor will it let me copy and paste, so click on the forums (top left) then ALL forums (scroll to bottom to Crowdfunding).

Buy them lunch and ask questions, find out what's good and bad, what tenants are looking for in the area, what the realtor thinks is happening in the area, etc.The above are all ramblings off the top of my head, but, I think there is some good, actionable stuff in there for you.The big items for you to know are ARV's and market rents.

Some investors are happy with a 5% return (it's better than a CD and most likely very safe) some wouldn't look at a deal unless it had 18% in big red numbers written across the top.

Bigger Pockets is a fantastic resource!

The "Learn" link across the top navigation bar has lots of great info, and most importantly, the BP members!

Also, set up "keyword alerts" by clicking on the link in the top right corner under the navigation bar with words of things that you are interested in knowing more about.Furthermore, I was just informed about a meetup group in our area.

Also I could see a lack of inspections for me paying 5-7% but from reading forums it sounds as if I am paying top dollar for PM services.

I'm a big believer in you get what you pay for and paying top dollar will sometimes save you more than it will cost you.This is usually very true with attorneys.