There are areas that are slow to welcome the re-vitalization but I think are ripe for opportunity.   

Based on my goals of long term passive income, I believe real estate investing is a get rich slow scheme so I try to approach RE investing with a longer time horizon - something like 10 years.

I know Los Girasoles has convenient seating, drinks and appetizers in addition to dinner, and Tuesdays are usually slow.

As long as I own rentals and flip the only way for me, or you, to slow down is to stop cold turkey and enjoy life outside of working.

Many web sites will tell you the sales price of a home the last time it sold but it will be a slow, time-consuming process to collect that data and analyze it.I don't know what your time is worth but you could spend several hours (or more) trying to determine market value on a home whereas a good REALTOR could tell you in 30 minutes.

The amount of time depends on how slow your local housing authority is. 

( slow process)Private money ?..

Cozy withdraws the money it deposited to my account and now we are sitting in the middle of March.

You won't be able to scale in CA.You said "I'm liking to make my first investment fairly soon"  Slow down cowboy.

I've talked to him multiple times about trying to speed things up and he always says they will, but work just continues at the same slow rate.