Being a licensed agent obviously saves me the commission loss, but I would like to at least hold more than a year to stay away from short term capital gains taxes.

I'm trying to start off small and gain my way up the ladder.

Gaining connections with agents, investors, and wholesalers for off market deals is obviously a sure way to find properties under value.

If I were to answer my own question - I'd say focus on flipping properties while you're young since it will give you a higher ROI and capital gains. 

This is how you grow your network, gain knowlage. 

Where you hoping to flip or keep for passive gain? 

Great to hear that you’re focusing on small multifamily properties as a starting point; they can offer great cash flow and help you gain valuable experience as you scale into larger investments.

There may be some exception if you previously identified that tree as dangerous/sick/etc and brought it to the owners attention.

On a similar note, one thing to pay attention to with PMs is the security deposits.

I'm hoping some 1031 exchange experts might know if it's possible to defer capital gains in this situation: I want to sell several  properties owned by a 3 member (all family) LLC (LLC-A) and sell one property owned by another LLC with different but overlapping membership (LLC-B).Buy a much larger property that would be partially owned by LLC-A and partially owned by LLC-BThe new property is one tax parcel with two addresses.