Buying a property is the very last step in a very long road to successful investing.

Bravo for pushing past that initial anxiety and taking the necessary steps to (re)build towards your dreams.Let me know if you’re thinking about investing locally in San Diego.

3. after completing steps 1 & 2 above, inform the listing agent that you wish for all your offers and counter offers be instantly forwarded to seller by email within 2 hours of submission Just like in their pictures where they're always giving the Thumbs Up, all realtors have their smart phones surgically attached to the side of their heads, on their person or within reach 24/7, so they can do as requested above.   

It is all about taking the steps in the right direction. 

After these preliminary steps https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/552/topics/562694-fl-mortgage-broker-ensure-listing-agent-presents-offer-to-seller  1. 

I'm interested in pursuing a bridge loan as a down payment for the property, then using my own savings as operating costs (emergency fund). 

Your best move would be to extend your list of needs to as may commercial brokers as possible in the market you are pursuing, tell them why you are a good buyer and let the deals come to you.Furthermore the "everywhere is expensive" and the "deals don't make sense" is something you will find in the bay area as it is a heavy appreciation market.

The idea of the live-in flips or living in one unit while renting out the other units seems to be the best options for me right now so I'll pursue them.

Stacy , if you want to make money with Airbnb the unit will need to have people provide 5* reviews .When your doing the garage rehab make sure you are designing a theme or design that will entice people to want to come back and of course leave great reviews With a garage you likely will need to go a little extra step in making it pop and keep the Benjamins rolling inId be happy to give you some guidance on themes or layouts for a free night stay :) Send me a PM Best of luck 

The owners of 100+ units can sustain and adjust since they knew at purchase this was a possibility.The new entrant to the MF space (possibly from BP since, along with the gospel of Cash Flow, another often repeated never questioned manta is that SFRs are a stepping stone to multi families) who has a few 5 or 10 plexes didn't underwrite the deal thoroughly, assumed rent growth keeping pace with expenses, and equal entrance and exit cap rates will feel the most pain.