There is a location where like minded investors gather in Lake Forest, California every month that you should check out.

Is the water meter accurate?

I'm not sure if I should buy a cheaper 1 bedroom or 2 bedroom place for me to live in for 5-10 years of if I should go ahead and bite the bullet to purchase a 3bd 2bath with hopes of one day turning it into a rental (because 3 bd 2 bath make the most sense for rentals from what I've gathered).

I expect listing agents to be far more knowledgeable and skilled in their market and pricing to be able to accurately price a property - heck if i can after watching the local market for 6 months they should - I asked a well known agency for a price evaluation they gave me a 2 inch thick binder and stated X amount - I said nope it's worth more and went with a discount broker and sold it for 25k more.

Once you have accurate information to work with, it’s time to get your 1099s.

The numbers work better with 3-4 tenants per roof than 1 tenant.I'm in the slow, painstaking process of gathering information on owners of duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes in the area so I can start my direct mailing campaign to hopefully grab a few of those eventually. 

Is it really a mortgage preapproval, or is it just data gathering to market other financial products? 

The crime map on Trulia says the crime is low, but I'm almost sure this can't be accurate based on other sources I've found during my research.

I know this is not always accurate, but until I get comps, it is what I have to work with, and even at $80K ARV, 70% would still give me $21K to work with on rehabs.

Why that's important is you could be buying loan with a payment stream however the unpaid balance is not accurate.