Don't do anything above the bare minimum.  

All of a sudden that lucrative profit is barely worth doing. 

I've barely started looking out-of-state, so far I've been trying to find investments somewhere within the greater so cal area, but I figure you have to keep your options open and willing to consider any opportunity.  

Figured id join up and participate some.

I have shadowed a local investor in looking for rehab properties, participated in auctions by the court steps, getting my hands dirty renovating the properties, staging for open houses, hosting open house, and signing loan docs (i'm a notary).

In other words, do you want to focus on doing transactions or do you want to focus on creating a entity larger than yourself that has the ability to generate income independent of your full-time participation?

The owners aren't going redeem them, so you've put out money to participate in the auction and/or to purchase the property, and you're not going to get any money back out of them.  

But over 8 years he has barely broke even if not lost money on it.  

What I have learned through my research is that the best way to know how much to rehab is to look at the retail houses on the market that sold to see what the bare minimum you need and compare flipped houses sold in the last 6 months to see what you are competing against.

But, your wife can also participate if part of the business, and can contribute the same amounts.