I know this barely scratches the surface as to your question, but I hope it helps a little…Good luck!

Hard money lenders can provide you a qualified letter or statement as proof of they bare going that route.

My big mistake was that I thought complete strangers or people I barely knew would trust me to be their Realtor.

So far, lack of money was barely ahead of guts and properties(deals).

I believe a duplex in southern CA is merely a capital gains or appreciation play especially in areas like Huntington beach, Seal Beach, etc because the cash flow will barely coverage the mortgage/tax/insurance in most cases if not probably negative cash flow and that's probably being generous with expenses and managing the property yourself.In some rare instances in east LA, inland empire, non coastal, Kern county, or other you may be able to find cash flow focused properties though.

For what it's worth, the Real Estate Commissions of this country are on a mission to shut down non-licensed real estate practitioners.If you cultivate relationships with a few key investor buyers and essentially become a deal finder for them, bare in mind that the Commissions across America are going to consider that brokering which requires a real estate license.Under scrutiny, a Commission is going to deem the Joint Venture approach as brokering as well since technically your Joint Venturing to find a buyer on behalf of the person who has the equitable interest (unless you can throw some serious money at legal research to find the case law to support it and even then you may not find it).

The homes are barely kept up, and yet the rent is higher than anywhere else.

Also, this current crisis is barely over 1 year old, whereas the Great Depression was at least 12 years long.

The repayment of the Down Payment at $60 per period even at 0% interest will just barely cover the down payment of $14k.

Bare with me, this is my first blog ever.