Hey Nick, totally can relate with you being from an expensive real estate market - I moved to Columbus a few years ago (from Portland, Oregon which was super expensive) to become a full time real estate investor, and ever since, I've completed quite a lot of BRRRRs, flips, and own a successful rental portfolio here in Columbus Ohio.

I set up my entities mid 2023 -a holding company in WY and an operating LLC in NJ and have only had start up expenses so far and no income.

High cost of entry here, and I have found that most local lenders require 20-30% down with 6 months of reserves for expenses in case of vacancies.

Having a license is cheap, being able to use your license in any meaningful way is expensive.

You are in an expensive part of the country, so this may take some time to find something.

This was a seller-financed transaction, the terms allowed us to use the ground as collateral and I brought partners in after I got all of the city approvals, and they took over the future expenses for the seller financing note and the other costs like engineering.

If you’re looking for suppliers for less expensive materials then you’re better off with a local reliable contractor.

Someone who's looking to serially house hack in my area probably won't be able to do it in those very expensive/desirable areas, but they also don't have to settle for the really bad, crime-ridden neighborhoods either.

Same goes for number of LLCs and what to fund them with, since bear in mind that CA tends to be more cumbersome and expensive to have LLCs than other states. 

LLCs are expensive and paperwork and publicly known.