@Margarita Uricoechea I second what @JoJo Diego said. Multi-familiy is an awesome investment for the first timer. My philosophy is do what your knowledge can handle.
@Derek Buescher I suggest to study the story of @Joe Fairless I think your questions will be answered after that.
I am in Arizona as well, maybe we can connect sometime in person and swap knowledge. I have a 3 year plan to purchase a multi-family, and I am finding answers to all the questions related to that goal at this point, while at the same time focusing heavily on building relationships.
Some quick suggestions I can give you are: purchase Commercial Property for dummies by Peter Harris. Make a friend that is an active property manager for a decent size firm that specializes in Multi-family, Make a lot of new friends, and talk about what you want to do, Soak in as much knowledge as possible before even looking at properties.
When I was getting my ice cream truck business together, I had a digital rendering made of what I wanted it to look like before I ever purchased a truck. Every day I would come to work with a folder with my notes on what I was learning that day, and these pictures. I talked to everyone about it, when I purchased the truck, it was super ugly at purchase, but I took pictures, and showed everyone when I made new progress. They would ask me questions about my business plan, and how I planned to be successful selling ice cream. I had intelligent answers for them because I was immersed in the information every day. Before my truck was even ready to sell product, I had co-workers, and friends offering me thousands of dollars in cash to purchase more ice cream trucks, but I never took any because I wanted to do things alone.
At the time, I was not deliberately trying to get money from people. I was just excited that I was doing something different.
The point of this story is, network heavily, be knowledgeable about multi-family, have a plan, and know it inside and out when people ask. talk about it a lot, to as many people as possible. Every person is a potential investor, and if they ask questions they are interested in you and what you are doing. Give them solid specific answers. When you finally find that distressed property, that has been managed poorly over the years, you will have a network of people that can't wait to invest with you because you have established yourself competent, and trustworthy with them. Don't let them down, put their happiness before your own, and exceed your promises.
Sorry About the long response, I get the adrenalin pumping when I think about this stuff haha :)
