I can see why a flipper would want to avoid this repair as it probably would eliminate their profit, especially in CA right now. 

With COVID and politics not effecting the market YET, there are numerous more changes coming to the market that NO lender has experienced.

Given the SoCal prices, the unknown future effects on real estate from Covid and elections, it might make sense to continue saving up so that you can make a GREAT purchase in the near future, rather than a decent purchase now.

The repayment terms for a 401k participant loan are equal monthly/quarterly payments of principal and interest (typically prime plus 1%) over a 5 year term (longer if used to acquire your principal residence).Please note that if you take a full $50,000 and then pay back the loan, you can't take another $50,000 until 12 months after the first loan was fully paid back.Per the loan offset rules that went into effect with the 2018 Tax and Job Act: if you leave your job and the loan is current at the time you leave your job but then the loan goes into default because you left your job, you will have until your tax return deadline (including any timely filed extension) to make the loan current by depositing the outstanding balance into an IRA (and thereby avoid the taxes and penalties that would otherwise apply).Please keep in mind the multiple loan rules:Under those rules, the sum of the balances of a participant's outstanding 401k loans under a single 401k plan (using the highest outstanding balance of each loan over the last 12 months) can't exceed 50% or $50,000 whichever is less.

If you have time to dig through tax lists and send out mailers that seems to be an extremely effective strategy for finding low-cost deals.

@Dan Heuschele such a detailed and helpful insight on honing in on the most effective types of meet-ups. just getting started on my journey and excited to learn more. thank you for sharing!

I would venture to guess since you are especially concerned with this and not optimistic about your ability to obtain a loan based on personal income or qualifications, an LLC is a good fit.A word of caution:  the only way an LLC is effective in limiting the liability that it is intended to limit is when the operator operates it like a business. 

@Christopher Brown the question of legal entity is (obviously) a legal question, and if you're going to do real estate you'll need to form a relationship with a real estate attorney anyway, so I'd recommend you find a good real estate attorney (I can recommend a few in RI if you don't know any) and ask her/him.As a "general rule", for an active business with earned income such as wholesaling, an S corporation (either an actual corporation or LLC taxed as an S-corp) is commonly recommended, and a flow-through entity such as a single member LLC, partnership LLC or trust is commonly recommended for holding rental properties (rental income).There are subtleties between the right entity for legal protection, and for tax effectiveness, and the right answer for you and your situation might not be the right answer for someone else, so it's really a good idea to consult with an attorney and tax advisor about your specific situation and plans.

Remember the forbearance won’t effect your credit, well it won’t from a score perspective, but it will when underwriting gets it.If you find a good deal in any market or economy jump on it.  

We feel extremely fortunate to have made the decisions we have based on learning what we could from bigger pockets.Our problem now is that we would very much want to purchase one or two more homes but unfortunately as the main source of income, my job was eliminated this past May due to Covid.