All of us that have been around awhile get fatigued seeing the same questions, of course, and your suggestions should help👍Now excuse me as I get back to that emotional support animal question I've never heard before...

Retail flips are time consuming, a PITA to coordinate multiple contractors, you have to go to the property a bunch of times, and there is a lot more risk involved. 

She doesn't have to be involved in the day to day, she just needs to be supportive enough to allow you to do it. 

Saving over 1% changes my answer.Just separate out pre-paids to get to the true closing costs and select the least expensive.My opinion is to support local banks if I can. 

Research each place to see which are growing and appear to have the jobs moving there to support that growth as well.

The initial negative cash position consumes the initial cash flow to recover the negative position.  

Also this is not specific in the CA income discussion, but generally any loan qualification can/will exclude income that is within 6 months of ending (child support, alimony etc).

There wasn't enough support and I needed more at the time.

I appreciate any support. 

$500k at 4% is only $2400/mo so plenty left to pay for insurance/property tax and still be self supporting.