As you mentioned, you can say great we are not going to put an offer in to call their bluff and if they do have the open house, you still have ability to put that offer back on the table.

However, I've begun using a CPA to help with my tax filings staring for the 2021 tax season and I pay him to navigate the rules and regulations of what is required.I have heard of CA pursuing "unpaid" taxes on out of state residents who have rentals or earn income in CA, so for my situation, it is worth hiring a tax professional to ensure I am doing everything correctly and am not hit with a bill 5 years from now from unpaid taxes + interest claimed by CA.

it seems pretty low risk with selling my primary house with the ability to borrow against another one of my properties if necessary, but I am relatively new to any lending outside of a bank.  

The most important qualities are sales ability, being uncomfortable (when marketing), being analytical, and being ethical.Its a sales job at the end of the day, so its great when its great.  

But if you core competency is flipping and flipping is what you want to do, take the hair cut, and find the next house you are going to flip. 

It does not matter when you do the study but sooner is always better than later for the ability to reinvest the additional cash-flow. 

They paid their own lights and gas and the same scenario I posted above would pertain to them as well regarding their lights and gas.For the tenants who had to pay the water bill, which we as landlords paid for ourselves, on behalf of the tenants, (and of course this would be stipulated in the Lease Agreement that they would be responsible for the lights, gas, and water bills) we would then turn around and bill the tenant for the water bill by typing up an Invoice out of QuickBooks and sending the tenant the a bill for the Water and also sending them a copy of the water bill sent to us from the Water Company to prove we weren't trying to charge them for more usage than what they used.  

So a creative approach like working assignment fees might be a way to raise some funds along the way to funding your ability to do your own deals. hope it helps a littlerandy 

Something that looks like this but with ability to remotely manage the codes -

Broker, which requires to carry specific insurance policies, offices, software systems, licensure expenses, continuing ed expenses, and this just get's on the ability to exist, that's it, just to exist.