People think if they can afford the down payment that they can afford the deal but even in deals where the purchase is 90k or less you will still need to be liquid 25k because you figure:15k to close5k to front contractor to get started5k (6 months holding costs)Insurance and Misc costs: 2kSo you see the life cycle can cost 25k+ even on a small deal. 

I used to do junk removal and demolition for these kinds of companies and saw all the worst case scenarios in columbus from tenants that can pay $800 per month. check the vetting requirements, raise the price to get into your unit. 900 per month is cheap in columbus if you are buying c class make sure to take a little more like 2 months rent so the people moving in aren't scraping by

I want to focus on helping people in the foreclosure or auction stage.

Haha this is why this situation is so confusing - many people with differing interpretations!

However, after doing my research and talking with a few people, I've been feeling SUPER overwhelmed.

As you know, this part of CA is nothing like what most people associate CA with.

I'm torn because people say "don't sell... houses are going to keep going up".

But I don't want to waste other people's time and would definitely feel a lot more confident overall if I knew that the money was there. 

It seems that many people who are considering getting into the industry are also unclear about what to expect. 

Yes development can have huge upside but I have also seen people lose $20M in a development deal gone bad.