My mentor and I had a lengthy conversation with him concerning the risk involved, but the rewards are surpass the risk so as long as we mitigate it.

@Jesse HodgesIf you like and trust the family member, then I don't see anything wrong with this.Agree on a reward vs responsibility formula and hire a local Real Estate Attorney to write the contract.I will also suggest you form an LLC for your partnership transactions.Goodluck man!

Californiais a tough market but has high rewards.

But when analyzing risk/reward and cash on cash vs cash flow I'm not sure if that's the right route.

Its all risk vs reward... you could also potentially invest in an F area, find a great tenant and they take awesome care of a property, and it cash flows through the roof.

in high interest rate environment, debt investment offer highest reward/risk ratio. lowest reward risk is investing at syndication multi family with floating rate options. for direct investment, living in flip with combination of BRRRR and holding time of 4 years seems easy money making strategy.

Then educate yourself on the different real estate asset types, capital stack locations and strategies (which all have different risk reward profiles) and split your allocation among them.

So there's a risk in opting for downtown neighborhoods (maybe crime, maybe it's easy to end up in the wrong street), but what is the reward? 

I've been debating Turnkey for some time now compared to a traditional BRRR but am skeptical of cash flow reward vs total amount into the deal. 

Most of the time it is to get a reward later and the anxiety and hesitation is natural, but it is the ones who fight through and persevere that become successful.