I managed the relationship with the sellers and raised some of the private money.

If we expect to need $200k for our first deal, how much money should we target to raise?

Normally this wouldn’t be an issue we would just fire him and raise his rent.

Sponsors should go beyond that, however, and raise a significant amount of cash for extra reserves--you can bet that the lender won't allow the property to tap the debt service reserve until there are no other options. 

Not being able to raise sufficient capital to close all of the deals that you actually want to close.

Seems it is worth every penny to install security cameras and fencing to be able to raise the rents 100% 

I was born and raised in GA, just recently moved to NC.

Fortunately, since you also live in the house, that makes you exempt from both Sacramento’s local rent control (Tenant Protection Program) and California’s statewide rent control (AB1482).Now, with regard to how to raise the rent, after the lease expires and it transitions to a month-to-month (MTM) agreement, you are free to raise the rent by any amount you choose. 

Assuming you have already enlisted a strong securities attorney to prepare your offering documents, which you will no doubt need to legally operate and raise capital, IRA's are a perfectly viable source of capital.

When this is happening, due to bidding wars and raised competition, properties would start selling for slightly increased inflated prices (not like the high we were seeing in January) - thus also helping appreciate houses bought during the SIP.