But to me, CapEx costs really have nothing to do with the gross rents, and have everything to do with the useful life of the big ticket items like roof, HVAC, appliances, etc. 

Of course bigger pockets has some great event items as well (we have one next Tuesday morning that is free with the owner of We Buy Ugly Houses in KC that is posted here).Happy Investing!

What are some of the major to-do items leading up to closing and after?

.- Next major item is structural which can have significant cost to repair.

To answer the OP's question,  HMLs will consider everything a traditional lender will consider but will often be willing to lend when a traditional lender will not.

Item Cost Life years Months Cost Per Month Roof $ 6,000.00 25 300 $ 20.00 HVAC $ 4,500.00 15 180 $ 25.00 Hot H2O $ 550.00 8 96 $ 5.73 Flooring Carpet $ 1,800.00 5 60 $ 30.00 Flooring Laminate Wood $ 1,800.00 10 120 $ 15.00 Interior Paint $ 2,500.00 6 72 $ 34.72 Exterior Paint $ 3,000.00 8 96 $ 31.25 Revamp Plumbing $ 1,500.00 20 240 $ 6.25 Revamp Electrical $ 3,500.00 30 360 $ 9.72 Misc $ 200.00 1 12 $ 16.67 Monthly CapEx Allowance _ _ _ $ 179.34 

Maybe i am going crazy, (after looking at 4-5 deals a day, that may be true) but i feel like i may be plunging in some information into the rental calculator wrong or there are just not that much good deals in the Torrance Area (in regards to traditional investing). i have done a quite few deals with creative investing in the South Bay arrea but I am still having troubles with the appplacation. can anyone help?

Due diligence often gets boiled down to some checklist of items folks seem to think they need to do.  

The traditional banking option is likely not an option for year or two( if both partners in the LLC are required to be on the loan).

I will say that taking it online was pretty boring to me, and all else being equal I would have preferred a traditional classroom setting.