Additionally, there is about 50k instant equity to be gained just by raising a on few units to market rent, and more room for curbside improvements and possible higher rents.Well they decided to order an appraisal, and the appraised value came back at $686,000!! 

I would probably start by buying an inexpensive house to live in and repair that has an opportunity for instant equity.  

We are in an era, where people have lost patience and want instant gratification.

The forums are unfriendly and actually unhelpful.If you feel that you cannot answer the same question that gets repeated, then do the forum a favor and step back a bit, and let other forum members answer the question (again), otherwise the forum becomes a growingly unfriendly place, made up of old hands that rule the roost, that snuff out new members in an instant.

Last year i had a I-beam tip over and break my leg Instantly!

But I hear what everyone is saying- it makes more sense to do the work for the next reno for free and it becomes instant equity.

We live in an instant-gratification culture and the truth is that to make a good living in real estate you just need to be consistent with strategic, proven actions.

You often get poor information about their prospective incomes, and by the time real information comes out, the stock price has already adjusted near instantly. 

To be sure, equity sitting in a house is dead equity - it's not making any money - but not all of your money always needs to be making money, because making money always entails risk, and a certain portion of your total net worth should always be easily accessible, easy liquidity, and instantly valued - ie, $10k in your checking account is worth $10k today. 

During that year, save, study the market, network with local investors, learn from them what they are doing to make profit and avoiding, narrow in on a sub-market you'd like to start investing in, and learn that sub-market like the back of your hand so that you know instantly looking at a property in that market what sort of neighborhood it is in, whether or not it is a deal, and what price would make it a great deal  ... that way, you can answer your own question and gain some knowledge and local experience.