CA New/Learning Investor, Can you share some wisdom?

[Gary F.]

Aloha Bigger Pockets Colleagues. 

My name is Gary. I'm just starting out in this wonderful world of REI. I just took out a HELOC and would like to start. I've zero experience in this and would like to hear from anyone willing to share some wisdom.

I'm in the Bay Area of CA, which many of you know, is extremely expensive for RE with many wealthy dot.commers. being that its Silicon Valley.  That's great, only I'm definitely not a Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates and make only 1/10000000th of their salary. 

I was looking into buy and hold for rental, flipping (though the rehab process may stress me out too much), or crowdfunding (though I'm not an accredited financial investor, which is required for those online sites), or other options. 

I was looking into the Central Valley of CA, possibly near a university for student tenants. Or section 8 tenants (pros/cons?). 

Can anyone share some wisdom?  Mahalo.

Gary