Side Note: Up front capital from my side is not an issue for down payments, and leaning towards the fix and flip strategy to build some cash and roll into a 1031 to ultimately get into the multi family space.  

If your not that fond of your family then go ahead and take the risk.

Hello BP family.

My husband and I have 3 single families here that we use as short/mid term rentals.

Investment Info:Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

My brother-in-law has been financially successful in real estate, but to avoid family issues, my wife and I have resolved to be self-sufficient.

I prefer one or two couples more than families and I wasn't attracting that with the twin beds.  

Unless you have some special knowledge, I suggest focusing on 1st position purchase money loans on single or 1-4 family homes.

I am interested in 3 to 4 bedroom single family homes to flip and small to medium multifamily for buy and hold.

In business, references and jobs done also help too.Handymen per CSLB are prohibited from taking on projects that are more than $500, unless they can either break the project down into smaller job or risk going to jail -especially if they furnished something recordable (ie, a phone conversation or in writing) in violation of this fundamental CA rule governing construction.So yes I do agree CA handymen should never quote a client anything more than $500/materials+labor per particular job unless they don't care about building a career towards being a licensed contractor honestly and dont care if they end up being criminally charged for it.As for a family member and/or close friend I would expect handymen in CA to obviously work out 'less than armlength' ways to help them with big jobs that do exceeed $500/project but not leave an obviously incriminating papertrail afterall its family you're dealing with anyway and nevertheless as a handyman (and likely brother, cousin, in-law etc) until one day you are a licensed contractor then can quote as much as you want per project.I'm tired and done with CA handymen masquerading as contractors, quoting contractor prices, yet not having even liability insurance that licensed contractors are required to have.