Understand, yet now the realestate market is extremely inflated especially in CA. Add to that the challenge you have where properties you contributed to financially were put in someone else’s name so you were basically just paying rent and have not built equity

So now you are facing challenges, yet you are not alone with this as many do not invest in property ownership and just rent.

My daughter bought her first home where she was able to rent the lower level and that helped pay the mortgage. She also rented a bedroom with shared use of kitchen and bath and living room. Again that helped with the mortgage. She eventually sold that home because of how great the market got for sellers.

Now you are going to learn how you can do fine in an efficiency so maybe you can look into a property that you can rent to art of it to pay the mortgage. You have to establish more credit yet and try and save as much as you can.