Us commenters will never know since we can't talk to the buyer's or the buyer's agents...it's a seller's market practically everywhere since 3 buyers lined up paid for inspector have to believe there was demand..

The key is balancing your dreams with practicality.

I now have a family including five kids at home so living in half a duplex is not practical. 

@Molly Jones it's best practice to check the assessed value while analyzing a deal.

It's typical practice to look at out-of-state (OOS) marketplaces in order to improve cash flow, particularly in high-cost cities like New York.

From a practical standpoint, get some reps under your belt with even a 2-6 unit multifamily on your own. 

We simply mastermind together quite often and stay in touch about the market place, best practices and other real estate and management opportunities.  

We practice "safe real estate", so this is all possible but not necessarily what will occur.This is not exhaustive and does not constitute any fiduciary responsibility, it is merely one man's opinion on a public forum.

I need to shift now to having practice sessions in doing research and in watching auctions online.

I am hoping to like many others build up a good retirement through real estate and are looking for opportunities to learn good practices, soft skills and gain confidence and build repeatable systems that can scale.