On the 21st CASH program, you can place homes with nearly nothing out of pocket if you resell them and about $6-$8k out of pocket if you rent or sell them on lease options.

Excel spreadsheets or some great program like Quickbooks?

When it was smaller I was able to manage all of the lease details, rent increases, certificates of insurance, maintenance schedules, cams etc. using XL and my accounting team use the basic package of sage.

With the federal stimulus and now the state Eviction diversion program it is delaying a potential slump in pricing.

Is investing in expensive beginner programs beneficial in the long run for RE?

If you learn ahead of time, your learning will be far less expensive unless you pay someone a bunch of money for an education/coaching program before doing some basic learning on your own.

We had a great 30 minute conversation with him happily agreeing to Mentor me, saying he is excited to get me going with his different investing programs and strategies.

What are some of your Training Programs?

One calling it a “certified” broker program, which is meaningless.

If you want to stay in Oxnard, you should really look into low-down-payment loan programs, especially the NACA program (naca.com) and find a way to make a househack here work.