I mean absolutely no disrespect, but IMO if this were me, I would find a house that needs easy stuff - floors, paint, some light landscaping maybe a light kitchen and bath redo - no structural changes, no gut rehab, not septic etc etc.  

Not to complicate or add more stuff to mix you up but there is also the AirBnB option which can be SUPER lucrative and fun! 

And then he went on to make a major international business based on it including Summits and other things.

Keep in mind however it takes a lot of money to run the business.  9 units is commercial and lot of stuff is more expensive. 

Keep in mind though one with a bunch of off market stuff isn't going to showing you more than 2 or 3 off market deals that are quality without you jumping.

My international RE experience is limited to South America, and it looks like I will need to build a forecast model from scratch to properly value the deal as the property and business are generational family-owned and the financials are not exactly GAAP compliant.   

But 90 minutes later his stuff was all gone....pretty good for a guy who had a heart attack that day lol.  

Most successful larger investors I know in Philadelphia don't GC their own stuff, they just find better deals that support a GC expense.

I have looked into doing an offshore sale in international waters to avoid CA tax, but if I take the boat up north I will be paying essentially the same amount of taxes once I get to Seattle.

Conventional conforming stuff, FNMA 30YF: This is your bread and butter cashflow rental property product line.