I think these high-end sales contributed to the high averages and medians for prices.

Quote from @Tony Lopez: You are in the most regulated corner of the world and have zero experience.

If your home is newer, requires little maintenance, and doesn't experience a vacancy for at least 12 months, your $300 cash flow can build up a tidy reserve to get you through.

Repeat the process to earn a $73,375 gain, which you roll over once more to end three years with about $174,000 and a 348% return.

A key lesson is to start small and build steadily—don’t rush into big deals before gaining experience.

One of our residents was robbed outside of this property and we ended up paying for the resident to move out and sold this property.

Have been talking about getting into real estate investing for the last 2-3 years and finally pulled the trigger on a 3 unit house hack in Soulard that will be closing later this month and will be self-managing the property.I'm trying to network a bit with other investors, build a solid team of contractors / handymen, and set my systems up in way to scale, but also so my tenants have a good experience.

@Hunter Duplantis what @Gino Barbaro said is exactly what I was going to suggest.When you have vacancy is the time to experiment and apply your original thesis.I’m not trying to play Monday quarterback here but, you should be highly confident in where the rents should be well in advance of having a vacancy.That being said, after confirming competition rents on websites (I’d also recommend Craigslist and Facebook marketplace), you should be in alignment there.  

(b) Is it okay to talk to multiple realtors at the same time (I'm thinking it would be better to have a separate realtor with lots of market knowledge and experience in each of the mentioned locations) or should I only plan to use one?

If you have prior experience, it will help tremendously to make them switch.