I am a bit north of you, up here in Humboldt County CA.

We're doing our second flip, and I'm considering buying our own worker's comp policy for workers on our project who we know don't have worker's comp (unlicensed/uninsured painters, carpenters etc). Yes, I realize it's...

HelloMy name is Andrew, I am a real estate agent and investor from Los Angeles, Ca.  

I live in Dublin California and the prices here are too ridiculous high to start.

For example your main goal would look like I want to purchase a buy a hold property in Yorba Linda, California, by March 31.2017.

That being said, wherever you are planning to set up your LLC, if you're going to work from California, then you will need to register it in California, even if you do no flips there.  

I've been painstakingly researching tax deed auctions in various counties in CA, and I'll be attending my first auction in a couple of weeks.

(so that you don’t lose your shirt)4.Learn how to turn your deal$ into ca$h.5.Is your marketing Working or Not?

if you want to do well in Wholesaling do the following:Understand that you've got to find rehabbers and find out what they want; go to REIA's and have a sheet of paper that you can fill out to know exactly what they want; I have a questionnaire if you want to contact me.Secondly you need to learn how to price a job, which is not the easiest thing to do; The best way to do that is to go to BiggerPockets resources and order the book " how to price rehabs" @J ScottYou only have one chance to impress a rehabber,if you don't know what a good deal is, you need to learnUnderstand your local state laws as far as what an agents activities are and what are their definitions, being a licensed agent, especially in Florida, California, and Ohio. 

And that's a whole nuther discussion with your CA CPA.