However, I would add that it depends on other factors, such as how you manage risk.

@Seth Deitchman Those are great goals:  Through Tax deed auctions you can certainly attain a profitable portfolio of flips/rentals if your Purchase Price is low enough to account for the rehab usually associated with Tax Deeds (as well as the other factors of course: neighborhood, market, etc). 

A HML is likely to see that as a plus, so if you factor the capital cost into the deal and it works for you -- HML might be the way to go.

Unfortunately, most on main street see wall street as this big bad wolf. 

Mainly looking at Toluca Lake/NoHo area (<$550K), but open to others. 

I’m in the salt lake area and I am looking to do something similar, but I’d be living in the MIL and renting out the main house.

I would use competitive ad copy and drive traffic to a landing page that features your main selling points front and center, with call now and contact us buttons below. 

Mainly, the systems implemented are fascinating (VA, automated offers, etc.)

When I was younger, my father owned three buildings in an urban area on the main street, which is where I grew up. 

I'll just cut and paste it here:"There are two main ways that house flippers are able to overcome the (very real) problem that most renovations don't increase the value of a property by at least 100% of the cost of the renovations:1.