I haven't had any hands-on experience with real estate investing yet, particularly because I feel it's essential to learn and listen from seasoned investors now so that I can begin my path to financial freedom prepared.

There are many opportunities in Orange County, you just need to know where to look and work with some seasoned professionals. 

Repeat as often as you can.If you are able to purchase in cash below market value and then refinance out and get all your cash back out with no seasoning, you can certainly accelerate the whole process if you have the connections to make all those different things happen.  

I see sometimes where an older owner has had a maintenance person for decades and stays loyal to them even though they have slowed down a lot which has affected the performance of the property.

(Not sure what your criteria is) These are older homes.

How do you approach a house you’re going to live in.We are getting ready to bid on a property that instead of renting we are thinking about living in for a few year (5-7).It will be a rental till my husband retires form the military (2 yr) and then may become a rental if we move on.The house is in a good location.The neighborhood is older, but the homes are being revived.

Some have more stringent geographic restrictions than others.In general, lenders base the interest rate and loan amount to the Value Ratio on the particulars of the individual deal, with interest rates currently in the 12-14% range and 3 to 5 discount points for seasoned borrowers.Inexperienced borrowers will possibly pay more.

I've done Austin seasonality studies in the past and found about a 4% pricing difference from Winter to late Spring (trough to peak).

Seasoning?

When you get into the millions you can start landing better debt.Some other investors I know have closed many small deals for multifamily successfully through Arbor funding.I do not have personal experience with them but maybe something you could look intohttp://www.arbor.com/loan-products/small-loan/Another option if you have some cash is to find an older owner that has sucked out depreciation and wants to retire and get money in small chunks back for a loan over time.