How or where would be the best place to learn to recognize if a deal is profitable as a rental, short term rental or a flip? I am currently in CA but I would also like to invest out of state due to the high prices in CA.

@Erik Montenegro Use a spreadsheet or a rental calculator. Know what the inputs are. Taxes, mortgage, insurance and any landlord expenses. Then the soft costs need to be estimated. Vacancy, repairs and capex(capital expenditures). BP has calculators you can use up to 5 times and in the files section there are rental spreadsheets.

If you find a property, check for comps on AirBNB and VRBO to see what others are renting for and how much vacancy they have, then you can estimate your gross income. Subtract out the other expenses as mentioned above with the rental calculator. Keep in mind property management will be more expensive for STR if you are hiring a company to do that for you

Get REAL numbers and not broker BS Pro-Formas.  Use that to calculate a return and do your own rent comps.  Then sort them out.