Real Estate is the constant investment vehicle.

It seems their recommended strategy hasn't really changed and aligns pretty closely with what I read in Stephen Fishman's book "Every Airbnb Host's Tax Guide," that is to set up a Wyoming LLC that holds an LLC in the state where property owned (or another vehicle in CA where LLCs are so pricey) and hold it as a partnership. 

You spend a lot of time working with tire kickers and don’t get paid for it. 2.

Also note that these investment vehicles are only available to accredited investors, so that should cut down a bit on people doing bad investments. 

you are kind of dealing with three diffrent issues here, the thing about not being a legal three unit, super easy don't buy something that's not legal, and your agent really shouldn't be encouring you to break the law, the issues with properties being beat up, the vast majority of multi unit's that sell have some wear & tear that's often the reason for selling, being a tired landlord, if you want turn key, you are proably looking more single family homes or paying big dollars for a turn key multi if it even exists in your market, 3rd we can debate the pro's or con's of this this market but youve hired and agent and 99% of agents are going to tell you its a great time to buy, i'm usually more measured but that's because I have a deep psychological problem in which I care more about being intellectually honest than making money, most agent's however are not afflicted with this disease so your gonna have to make this decision for yourself before you hire any agent.

I'm tired of marketing and taking risks with virtual wholesale deals for 1-8k profits.

Also I look at my 401K as a ok vehicle but my other investments  (my portfolio) yield much higher returns ... also if all goes well I’m 33 I will retire in 10-12 years ...

Networking and creating your "team" of professionals is one part of it, but also educating yourself on the variety of real estate investments and determining which is the best vehicle for achieving your goals now vs. later is equally important.

Listing in the spring brings more tire kickers versus listing in the fall, not necessarily better buyers.

And like any investment vehicle, low risk equals low yield.Currently to break even with rent covering just the mortgage payment takes about a 35-40% down payment on an investor loans.