You might find some success in partnering with another local who is also wholesaling. 

Hey Justin,I have heard of people doing this before and had success, but I don't have the time to hang around the lumber yard.

Just about all successful Bay Area investors did well by holding and adding more properties as they could from refinancing.

It is known that the house flipping industry is growing and that to be successful in the business of flipping, you will want to buy homes at a discount in order to have nice margins when you go to sell. 

I have a track record of successful investments with both my commercial lender, and private lenders who are asking me for projects to place funds into.3.)

In wholesaling, if a real estate agent gives you a lead on a house and you end up putting it under contract and successfully assigning it to an end buyer, is it legal to give the real estate agent a percentage of the assignment fee?

Keeping your mind open is one of the best practices in life.Having said that,  I find myself always questioning interesting points and theorizing on real estate success. 

To me it is going to most likely be next to impossible for you to do what you want to do unless you are willing to live on VERY little BUT if I was to advise someone trying to do this I would say FLIP as fast s you can until you build up enough to buy multi families Or start and run a successful business The chance of the business failing is huge.

Successful loan assumptions are rare, you aren't the only one that's coming up against this difficulty.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone could successfully do this and get away with it, but I would like to know if this is actually illegal.