What I'm looking for is to pick up other properties along the way as the Richmond deal will take about a year to complete. 

OR you can decide to pick and choose what you would like to be involved with your project.

Procedure should be simple as highlighted.Just remember, it was on a Li’s Pendens list so the possibility of it going straight to bank owned without it going through... really an on-market preforeclosure, foreclosure or auction stage is slim to none at best.

@Wen Chuang, As well as being an investor in the Bay Area/San Francisco, I also run a property management company in San Francisco and what you're asking and describing unfortunately doesn't have a simple answer and falls into those all too familiar words of "It Depends."

. $20-30k in improvements based on a simple drive by viewing. 

For instance, they are underwater or the home value is too high.You can look at the demographics of specific "carrier routes" (CRRT) within a zip code to pick the ones that have the highest rate of homeownership and desirable average price range.

Here's a simple example: if my population is 100 people within a 3 mile radius, and my storage supply is 800 sf., 800/100 = 8 feet per person.

Account Closed Pick a higher paying major (engineering, accounting, finance), pick a niche then pick a sub-niche, learn everything about that sub-niche, network like crazy - by attending your local REIA and other investor meetings and keep marketing yourself.

This would be a way to have access to a larger library of books through the "club" network, but would mainly be a simple excuse to meet other investors and do some networking.

I purchased a three unit property, and the way that I went about analyzing was simple.