“Over a period of a year or so, her ( Sara Elford) contractor was receiving draws and using the monies on his own projects and leaving numerous projects sitting for lengthy amounts of time.

What about contract, trades people, general contractor managing, scheduling, managing draw downs or payments? 

OK< I guess I understand getting in with skinny money.Then you'd better get something you both agree on for escrow to do draws and make sure it is understood by ALL. 

I have sent in and called so many places within my city and county attempting to gain access to public records would love to hop on a call with anyone who has experience pulling these lists and understand what is necessary  for the specific county  I am reading through the list of code violations  and am going to attempt to use them to find records possibly  public records in California is a pin any tips would be greatly appreciated

I’m getting lost in the sheer volume of location options - do I buy in San Diego, North Carolina, Ohio etc...In a world that my proximity to investment property is not an issue - what are the first best steps in pinning down location of investment? 

I would definitely talk to a real estate attorney but you might consider having one draw you up a joint venture contract.

We have minimal in our savings as we are living mostly paycheck to paycheck, however I have between 10-13 in a roth 401k that I would be willing to draw out and use as a down payment and my father in law has offered to give us 10g towards our first purchase as well.

Otherwise, I was thinking of putting the cash in a low-risk fund and draw from it to pay the current mortgage.

Reach out to BP abs draw on others' experience!

But being a holder for over 6 years and living through the markets Which is exactly the problem. 6 years does not come close to "living through the markets" - it's too short of a time period to draw any meaningful conclusions.