To be honest, I´m in the Maintenance & Construction for corporate businesses for some US companies in Mexico and we do some Real Estate down here also, but it´s way much different than the US, so I have much to learn from a lot of people around here and as @Julio Gonzalez, I think this is pretty much the right pad and place to start and to break my fears to start all over again from scratchAlso, I´ld like to hear more from @Justin Brickman why he voted for his city, pros and cons, it will help to read from a local...As I said before, thank you all guys for taking the time to write in this post and share some experienceDo you plan to owner occupy. $40k will not get you a non owner occupied San Diego property unless you find some unlikely alternate financing.

It needs to be made criminal to do such as these corporations are, intentionally exploiting illegal immigrants 4-profit.

America!!

My education background is in computer science, mathematics and some corporate finance, as well as have some internship experience in the quantitative finance space.

I have spent 20 years climbing the ladder working for global corporations and that tends to always keep you challenged. 

Despenas LLC aka SDIRA Wealth aka Modern Day Living Real Estate LLC are all scam companies that inflate housing prices in the neighborhood only to sell eviction-prone extremely damaged homes with no intent to perform the agreed-upon inspection repairs and send you through multiple corporate hoops after purchase only to completely ignore you immediately after the sale.

I call them in-between because they are conferences, so not like your local meetups, but they are not truly "industry" conferences like NMHC, where you will meet primarily career, corporate multi-family people.Bigger Pockets Conference and Best Ever Conference are two that likely would cater to people more in your position.  

She specalizes in corporate rentals.

Mind you, with mortgage interest rates in the US being so much higher now (and seemingly for the foreseeable future), I wouldn't be surprised if LTRs in Europe would cash flow better than in the whole US nowadays (to be verified).This being said, I don't and would never invest in LT rentals outside of North America  as I wouldn't want to face unfavourable landlord/tenant laws as a foreigner.

A FHA 203k Loan is where the purchase price and rehab costs are rolled into a single loan.Assuming you have a respectable FICO you can buy, with a FHA Loan (3-5% down, a 30 year amortization schedule, and a residential loan rate) AND because you closed personally, you will not have Asset Protection, in the form of closing in the name of a LLC/ LLC taxed as an S Corp, or an S Corp.