I also agree with learning as much as you can on here and other forums - for free - to be honest, the best and most valuable lessons you can learn is from getting your hands dirty and doing your first flip.

Just keep all your financial records regarding the purchase, improvements, holding costs, etc.

His reasons were: a) he can borrow capital improvement budget, thereby not diluting LP returns and b) he could not underwrite yield maintenance.He continued to imply that his business model will remain short term holds (under 5 years) so this debt works for him and is better than fixed rate.My question to this community: would you still be willing to invest with an operator taking out floating rate debt in today's world?

If you start young and hold for the long hall it's hard to lose with a solid house hack! 

Read as many RE books as you can get your hands on.

On the other hand if they are a sponsor that is experienced in stopping a skin in the game, that's a huge red flag for me.c) how open to scrutiny are they?

Off Market property, sold to an investor who likes to flip & Hold What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Though, this process will be the same for the other state (if you created a CA LLC you may need to register it as a foreign LLC in the state in which you are doing business/holding property).

There have only been a small handful of hurricanes in the past 50 years which have led to widespread evacuations. 

Read as many RE books as you can get your hands on.