There are a variety of options to get into the multi game in Essex, but as @Jessica Zolotorofe  mentioned, the taxes are high so you have to have a strategy in place to make that work.

The bulk of our borrowers do not qualify for conventional for a variety of reasons like less than 2 year's self employed, debt to income ratio and credit issues that have driven their score too low to qualify.Stephanie

There are a variety of decent options out there.

Like you said, it will only scratch the surface, but I think will help me in a variety of ways which will pay for itself in the long run.

Ideally around a university would probably be better for a variety of reasons but I may need to start in the bad area since its cheaper.

Personally I'm a buy and hold (really buy, renovate, and hold) investor but I have clients (investor friendly agent) with a variety of investment strategies.Please feel free to reach out if you'd like to chat.

Big Hat Rich Landlord is getting sued.Proper entity structuring won't preserve your assets if you really did something horrible and deserve to be sued- but it will keep attorneys of the "ambulance chasing" variety away from you like a hot tin roof to a cat!

I've been looking in a variety of areas and any of the homes that I like are going in 24-48 hours. 

I have a variety of properties including duplex, tri plex, SF and condos.  

For a variety of reasons we have decided not to purchase anymore property in Florida.