Although we're not as pricey as the bay area, we're also certainly not an inexpensive market and there are trade-offs to investing here. 

I was led to believe that it should trade somewhere around 3-4 times gross sales

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I've been a contractor for more than 50 years with licenses for 8 specialty trades.

@Kristen ChapinAlso note the interest rate should be better on the shorter fixed period but the trade-off is that it’s only fixed for a shorter period.

If you do choose to manage the property yourself you need to get fully educated on the laws, process and all the tricks of the trade in dealing with tenants.

Unless you are getting a phenomenal deal on your CA purchase, i suspect that you'll find it tough to make money on a flip in SoCal if you are sub'ing out all of your trades.

If you want to clarify your structure a bit more and ask additional questions you can just TAG me or reply and I will swing back to update this.

Primarily looking for GCs but certainly welcome any other recommendations for trades like plumbers, electricians, etc. 

I don’t believe in lifetime cashflow from a single rental (not that you only buy and hold one rental but that that one rental can have significant equity growth with cashflow to float you, then you sell and do it again or trade up).