New to real estate and learning through passive investments with my self directed IRA.I am interested in meeting new people, building relationships, learning and assessing possible investments as a private investor.

Assess the repairs needed and compare what the cost of the home+repairs vs. what you want to do with the home (rent/flip/live in).If everything offers a great cash flow or a house you'd like to live in, submit an offer. 

A couple of quick rules of thumb I use to assess if a deal even makes sense to go further is the 1% and 2% rule.

Their job is to assess at the true cash value and that’s what you’ll be taxed on.

When assessing a househack in Socal, it's more important to tally up how much the building will cost, subtract from that the amount of rent you'll collect, and then contemplate the difference.

I’m looking to gain more experience looking at properties, assessing value, and how to start investing.

It is 2% of assessed value for investment properties.

So then those happen you will be given a assessment and charged for your share of the bill on top of the monthly HOA Fee sometimes upward of 10s of thousands of dollars.

Is there a certain calculator tool or spreadsheet you use to run specific criteria to assess best cashflow?

Realize all of the above are not mathematical, so its your "assessment".Then, what's the answer.Lets say your future payoff is $200,000 in 15 years.