Renting means you have a monthly nut that you have to continue to cover.Now I think renting does have an advantage in a high priced area like SF.

I feel that all of this extra time will be an advantage in my real estate investing venture!

You have a lot of competition but that just means you need to take advantage of all the investor meet ups.

There are some advantages to being off title, such as limiting liability, and its a lot simpler transaction.Anyway, if your due diligence is coming up great on the contractor, and you can triple validate the ARV, then I definitely think the deal is worth some strong consideration.

Also take advantages of some more tax write offs.Can anyone offer some ideas on how I may be able to accomplish this.

While the property "in answer" is not advantageously nestled in the part of Chicago having a "pulse" (The Loop), it isn't positioned in the boon-docks, either.  

And way to use the site to your advantage.

It has many advantages.

Make sure you take full advantage of the vast resources here on BP including forums, blogs, podcasts, analysis tools, etc.

Here's the thing with rehabs in socal that we flippers have an advantage then most states.