I'm in the Bay Area houses here are very expensive for me to start with. 

So I guess my main question is:  With these numbers, would this be considered a good investment to rent or should I cut my losses and start over somewhere else?    

This obviously puts us in a tight spot as we have work scheduled to start soon and need the loan to finance the rehab.My question for lenders is, can her Mom take out a home equity loan on the inherited property of which she is listed as a lifetime estate tenant without the consent of my girlfriend (co-owner)?

Start with BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginners Guide (free).

Investing in a syndication or fund could be a good fit given your situation.I started investing in some fix and flips and some smaller residential properties from traditional BRRRs.

My name is Hogan Chouinard and I am new to real estate investing, I have been wanting to get involved with real estate for a while because I want to give myself financial freedom in the future by putting in the extra work right now, I want to start a real estate portfolio that I can continue to build on over time for years to come, and I am hoping that I can meet some people on bigger pockets that can help me along the way!

Or should I try to find a deal now and start the loan process?

If you just hire the cheapest or first PMC you speak with and it turns into a bad experience, please don’t assume ALL PMC’s are bad and start trashing PMC’s in general.

There could be a contested title (unknown heir, brother/sister disagree on selling the property, taxes due claims by state as a result of passing, IRS, so on,) at this point.It will likely take one of the heirs to get organized, start the process to become the personal representative/executor and petition the court.

According to our lawyer and case study, our base starting pay back is the 75k + taxes, interest, and insurance and not the 200k we paid so we subpoenaed the previous owner for all of his figures he spent renovating the house.