The rest of the country so far is in relative balance with supply/demand.

It'll be a little difficult to find a mentor on the forums.

As @Drea Na stated, cash out is difficult.

Also the fact that I don’t know the area is making it difficult.

Some investors go for max leverage, while others prefer to keep debt low and scale slowly.I’m curious: how do you balance this in your investing journey?

There is rampant neglect and mismanagement in the industry, and it makes it difficult to stay on top of the situation remotely, as the investor has approached the situation with the ideal of being more "passive". 

In CA land prices, regulations that push up costs to build, fuel prices that affect everything manufactured and shipped on trucks or trains, regulations imposed on employers that push labor costs through the roof, insurance costs, make it very difficult to build new.

TIC's if there are a lot of investors can be a nightmare as down the road everyone has a voting share and trying to get them to agree on sale,refi, injecting more money, etc. can be difficult.

@Brittney Yang first red flag is it doesn’t sound like he’s that interested in long term holds but the primary reason for partnership is expertise in renovation and secondary reason is balance sheet and income to help get financing.Regarding reason one, I would offer to compensate him for his time in assisting you and have a very clear scope of what that responsibility is.  

@Melissa M Blackwelli know this isn't what you want to hear, but if you're "using the equity" with a HELOC and then financing the rest, you will likely just lose money, as it will be very difficult to find a property that can support 100% financing.i would save up more cash firsthope this helps