It's certainly nice @Jay Hinrichs although my opinion is biased by my home market and the things we have in the price range is a fair bit of difference: https://www.zillow.com/community/evanswood/452295817_zpid/ and yeah, that pic is not a whopsie, indoor sport-courts a popular thing here. 

Your credit wil be shot and you potentially have a taxable event upon reposession. 

I was wondering if anybody knew of any upcoming networking events coming up in or near the LA area.

Zillow, BiggerPockets, Reddit, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, local events (BP, meetup, and eventbrite)- Any red flags or things to avoid when dealing with wholesalers?'

Also seeing that I am replying a bit later to this post but I was wondering if any groups or events had been identified?

The best way to break in is usually through local investor meetups, REIAs, and BiggerPockets events; that’s where most property managers and active investors actually source new vendors.

The other thing you could do is go to local networking events and be as helpful as possible to real estate investors in exchange for them showing you the ropes so you reduce the likelihood of mistakes.  

If you are local go and attend local events where investors gather.

We're not looking at anything stagnant or losing equity without an insurable event.

Local real estate meetups and investor groups are great for networking and finding mentors, and you can usually find them through BiggerPockets events, local Facebook investor groups, or checking for REIA meetups in your area.