After much legal advice, I understand I can't force a tenant in CA to leave (no-fault evictions are illegal here) unless they are arrested on the property, stop paying rent, or if you have a family member move in.

Now you need to figure out how to find deals and pay for them.

For the price of courses, I pick up ones that appeal to me because I think that if I can add one thing from them it pays for itself. 

remember: if the net amount that goes to your mortgage after you collect rent is equal to or less than what you'd pay renting - you're ahead. 

In exchange for paying the high end of comps for the house at $500k without going on the market, the buyer was ok paying a commission because they knew they’d have to anyway to fetch that price on market.

Don't try to be smarter than the city and not pay the license fee else you won't even get through the court doors.

Your landlord isn't going to pay any after hours, or weekend repair rates, and so you are most likely going to have to pay for those out of your own pocket, even though it's technically not your responsibility. 

Based off previous property taxes payed by the family member, we estimate the property to be worth roughly 100k once livable.

You can search for members and see the agents (alongside everyone else) in Seattle but the only way to show up on a list of agents is to pay Bigger Pockets for advertising (currently $2,000 / 25 leads here in Seattle). 

Getting $450k from a home sale and willing to pay entire year rent upfront.