Given the SoCal prices, the unknown future effects on real estate from Covid and elections, it might make sense to continue saving up so that you can make a GREAT purchase in the near future, rather than a decent purchase now.

The repayment terms for a 401k participant loan are equal monthly/quarterly payments of principal and interest (typically prime plus 1%) over a 5 year term (longer if used to acquire your principal residence).Please note that if you take a full $50,000 and then pay back the loan, you can't take another $50,000 until 12 months after the first loan was fully paid back.Per the loan offset rules that went into effect with the 2018 Tax and Job Act: if you leave your job and the loan is current at the time you leave your job but then the loan goes into default because you left your job, you will have until your tax return deadline (including any timely filed extension) to make the loan current by depositing the outstanding balance into an IRA (and thereby avoid the taxes and penalties that would otherwise apply).Please keep in mind the multiple loan rules:Under those rules, the sum of the balances of a participant's outstanding 401k loans under a single 401k plan (using the highest outstanding balance of each loan over the last 12 months) can't exceed 50% or $50,000 whichever is less.

If you have time to dig through tax lists and send out mailers that seems to be an extremely effective strategy for finding low-cost deals.

I am married to a contractor and I am pretty good at design and also throwing shingles and swingin a hammer lol, so I would like to  start with flipping some houses to build capital.

@Dan Heuschele such a detailed and helpful insight on honing in on the most effective types of meet-ups. just getting started on my journey and excited to learn more. thank you for sharing!

Also if you are getting a loan designed for first time home buyers but you move out be sure to have conversations with your lender NOW and a good agent NOW about if you are allowed to do it. 

I would venture to guess since you are especially concerned with this and not optimistic about your ability to obtain a loan based on personal income or qualifications, an LLC is a good fit.A word of caution:  the only way an LLC is effective in limiting the liability that it is intended to limit is when the operator operates it like a business. 

I hope to move more towards dev/design before I graduate.

One other negative, and I don't know if this is true for all because I only have one, it is designed to hook up to a hose bib for cleaning.

However, these loans are designed for first time home buyers and were not necessarily meant to be used multiple times.That said, what qualifications/requirements would you need to meet in order to take out a second FHA loan?