I'd recommend that you help others that are looking in cheaper markets with their flips and ask to join them with the limited capital you have.

Fannie Mae and Freddie recently limited 7% of their portfolio to be investment/second homes so this has caused rates to increase for Conventional investment properties. 

However, my broker is limiting anything under 100k now.

You will be limited to 75% of ARV.

We are doing this with a portfolio lender and paying a bit of an interest rate premium as we are over the limit for Conventional financing. 

I've tried perusing the California tax laws and it taxed my limited brain capacity, so I had to give up.

Only limiting it to 3 things is tough but I’d say the 3 most important things I’d recommend to newbies are:1.

Along these same lines, an app like Venmo may work with a prepaid card (registered to a network brand like American Express, Discover, etc), but the issue with the daily/monthly send limit would be an issue I think. 

James Kleimann of HouseWire reports that starting April 1st, a number of new restrictions will take place including a 7% limit on Fannie Mae’s acquisition of single-family mortgage loans secured by a second home and investment properties.

However you may have limited time to make a claim.