You can go basic or all the way to pro level depending on your needs. 

We do have the current month to month leases so we have their very basic information but I would like more - employer, pet, vehicle info (on site, shared lot), emergency contact info.

Learn the basics first about real estate, we eat an elephant one bite at a time.Initially, work with an agent who has experience and where you can feel free to ask questions, you need a good communicator. 

I’m about to go to basic and I plan on doing the same thing.

And that your property might actually be worth more than you paid for it and the exit to a homeowner ( were the real profit is made) might actually be viable).I would think on the smaller investor who has 2 to 4 SFR's the better quality homes in the begining will proform better.the investor who does this for a living and needs 50 to 500 units maybe the cash flow is what its all about as they know they will never sell for basically more than they paid.. and in many cases probably less than what they paid

I’ve also been looking at Memphis too.For the last few months I’ve been spending countless hours researching REI and house flipping in particular and I think I’ve got the basics down on how the process works on the transaction side of things (at least it doesn’t seem intimidating anymore).

Another method is physically going to properties on the market in your area and look at them, look to the basic concept of "DUST" in the real estate, after about 50 homes in a band of price ranges, you'll be able to guess, it might take 100.Too bad newbies don't have a "Blue Book" for real estate, wouldn't that be great......Oh, that's a 2006 model Harrison Built in Oak Hills, zip code 65606, ah, it says here the 3/2/2 is worth, in good condition, $212,500.00 !  

It will go over the basics and you'll have the chance to meet a lot of local active investors.

Establish your base in California, and once you feel like you've established yourself here and learned how to be a landlord and some basics about real estate, then, perhaps, consider putting money out-of-state.  

I have not touched any portions on new construction and GC's to Subs, but I find that these files are the most basic paperwork that a rehabber needs in order to protect themselves from liens, flaky contractors, and what they should expect from contractors.