Given California's tenant-friendly laws, you'd probably be better off hiring a PMC to help you find & screen roommates. 

Outside of that you can look at crime rates, etc but having a boots on the ground or local expert would be the best benefit of where to look in a specific market.

I attended seminars, joined meetup groups, and regularly invited local professionals for coffee to learn from their experiences.

Some landlords are 100% exempt from Fair Housing Laws.

You can start with reading his books (Multifamily Millions) and go to a local seminar when they are in town.

If you ever stop rolling over to new dsts and paying that 10-18% in fees, then you’ll owe all those taxes anyway…It reminds me of the large local swap meets, gun shows, craft shows, etc etc etc….    

I am currently an active duty attorney in the Navy, mostly focusing on criminal law.

A great way to find a good team member (contractor, agent, partner, attorney, lender, PM, etc.) is at a local Real Estate Investor meetup.

Last thing you want to do is get too deep somewhere with your time and money only to realize the STR laws are not friendly.

I'd highly recommend looking at going to the Investor lab events or join the local REI.