Trim away as much fat as possible (like trading down in automobile if at all possible), stop dumping money into the 401k for a while, and try combining your desires to buy your own place and invest in real estate by "house hacking," where you live in one of the units of a multiplex while renting the others.

Plus your social security will not be taxed unless you are taking made earnings from other sources that put you over the limit.When you can have your cash work for you, be liquid, and put it to work for you in other automobiles such as property, you can't get far better than that!

THAT is what google checks and punishes.So if you legitimately provide value to people (like I absolutely do) I will always and forever be immune to ANY Google updates..Now .. 

In fact Cerritos Auto Square in California in the worlds largest has 29 different brands of automobiles.

@Tim FitzGerald   good points the only rebuttal I have to your post is RE agents contractors appraisers lenders etc are all licensed and they stand to lose their livelihood is they screw up badly enough.. a non licensed wholesaler can botch a deal and they are immune .. no other industry would allow someone with no training no licensing to control thousands of dollars worth of assets they do not own. and if it goes bad just say well I am sorry it did not work..

Of course, I can't buy any of them if I don't let those owners know I might be interested in buying them.Now, the ones I do own and rent out pay my mortgage, buy my groceries, pay my health care, cover the vet bills, pay for my automobile insurance, the visits to the dentist, chiropractor, and yearly medical check ups.

So make no mistake, multifamily investments aren't immune from challenge, and @Joel Owens is 100% correct when he says that just because "everyone needs somewhere to live" doesn't mean it will be in your apartment building.