I'm in the greater Boston area and I wasn't able to fully live for free but I was spending about $700 on my unit.

You can spend as little as $100 to form an LLC, or you could use an attorney and spend $1,000 or more.

Obviously what some of them have done is decrease consumer spending and increase savings.

And you spend all that money on updating it will be for not.

This means taking days off of work to handle business, dealing with the subs and any deficiencies they may have, spending time dealing with the city, for both permits and inspections.Having GC doing everything won't entirely eliminate your time cost, but it can mitigate it to an extreme degree.My take is that if you are confident that you can be as fast as the GC in handling everything and there is no negative impact to your other business then by all means do it.

If I could deploy the same amount of up front cost to purchase an up and running portfolio.My calculations tell me that I can be cash flowing much more if I spend the money on a portfolio or complex.

She spend an intensive 2 months studying real estate principles, law, and finance, and studying RV parks in both counties.  

Be prepared to spend a ton of dough.Personally I think that it is unnecessary.

The learning curve for plumbing is a nightmare, you'll spend a lot of trips to the store and get frustrated starting over constantly. 

A single family could ultimately be a lower price point for you but depending on how much money you have available to spend on the purchase and any repairs/maintenance, either one could work.Have you found any SF or duplexes that catch your eye or know how much money you have to spend?