My long term goals include owning additional real estate properties and renting them to great tenants while using my love for tools and home improvement to continually make them better.

I signed up for one of the Wealthability online classes.  

At the initial B.O.H. inspection to bring the unit back on-line they determined how many occupants I was allowed.Good to hear you got it resolved with no issue though.

See also http://www.bsc.ca.gov/Home.aspx since it looks like a lot of CA specific code is online.

It would take a whole new set of tools/know how to try to hold them.I know they get a worse rap than they probably deserve and lots of people make good money with them, but I just see them as disposable housing.

RE is still one of the best investment tools and there are plenty of workarounds for CA folks.

May be new washing machine hoses, may be all brand new drawer pulls, or a new microwave...whatever.So this year I picked up a couple of dozens of USB wall receptacles from an online sale, and I noticed everyone likes to charge their tablets and phones on the kitchen counter.

The amount of interest you pay will not change unless you refinance the loan or pay it off early.There are amortization calculators out there and also tools in Excel that will show you how much you're paying down based on the time frame.

If after viewing online I think the property has potential, I ask my realtor to preview the property for me.

While you can meet those requirements online, I would recommend attending live courses - they are great networking opportunities.