At this particular time in the cycle it is almost impossible to fill $15-$20/hour type jobs. 

LLC doesn't work with conventional loans, you need the servicer/lender permission to change from your name and sell to LLC after the fact, probability of getting permission is 5%LLC means commercial type everything: insurance and mortgage will be more expensive and more down payment. 3% down is impossible. 

I am not saying it is impossible, but that it likely is going to be more of a learning experience than a profitable experience.If you can somehow be a protege to a local BRRRR investor to learn some items first, it would be better than nothing.I am curious if you can find any coastal CA RE investors that did their initial BRRRR in a cheap midwest location that today believes that was their best option. 

I know some of the big national guys use criteria like that but as a small time investor I don't get too hung up on what could happen long term as there are so many variables that are impossible to predict. 

As someone who knows the area and inventory I was going to suggest locations, but with no budget info that’s impossible.

And then as they grew they ended up with thousands of clients literally.. and when you have 50 small investors on one loan and it goes bad ( and a lot of their stuff went bad) trying to customer service them was impossible.. the 2k investor is blowing up your inbox phone then gets on SM and you would think they lost a million dollars. 

This is somewhat of an impossible question because even though your post is detailed, it's still not going to cover every nuance when dealing with a family related situation.

I’ve done several calculations for duplexes and at the end of the year I’m in the negative.It’s already hard enough finding a place to house hack and live in but once mortgage insurance is added in it’s almost impossible in this market. 

Hey Eddy, from your post it's impossible to say if it's a good move or not. 

In my city, if the property is not zoned for what I want to do (typically 2 family dwellings), its a waste of time to consider it, as changing the zoning is almost impossible for me.