Give them a portion of the profits from the STRs and have a buy-out clause when you have the funds to refinance.I am sure there are many other potential options for you to look into, but just off the top of my head these 5 came to mind.

I'm not a real estate professional in the IRS sense, so if I take money out of my real estate investments as profit, I'm paying ordinary income.

Sold 4 of our 8 Selfstorage locations to take profits off the table and pay some debt down.  

Quote from @Evan Polaski: @Jay Hinrichs, while I wasn't going to call them MLM, I did attend an Armando Montelongo (A&E's Flip this House from mid 2000's) seminar at a hotel conference room in 2007 or 08, which was the free funnel to spend $1,500 for a three day seminar or $25,000 for an in-person mentorship.I have seen similar promoted with Christina and Tarrek from Flip or Flop more recently.I didn't start realizing how profitable education can be until the last 5 or so years.  

While you might lean towards long-term tenants for stability, short-term rental platforms like Airbnb can yield higher profits if the building allows it.When you get to Miami, I’d recommend visiting a few meetups hosted by South Florida REIA.

Hi Kris,  I would be happy to drive you around Indianapolis and show you the transitioning neighborhoods when you come to visit. 

110% profit Lessons learned?

I would agree with Chris, I would not use debt to cover all costs and then hope to get a good pop on the sale to cover all the debt, payments and still have some in the end to make a profit to do it again.

As is, it looks like the duplex would lose about 10k a year while the fourplex profit about 1k per year...that said Jersey City heights (duplex) is not rent controlled and would appreciate more than downtown Union City.

Getting a steady, reliable paycheck is awesome and it is how you keep yourself lendable and scalable.This - "transition out of a 9-5 as soon as possible" - is not what you should be saying at 25 years old.