Buying a portfolio might lead you to making decisions you don't have the experience and foresight to make well.

As for your ques if to wait, well, it depends on the market, in some parts of the country prices are still going up, slower, but still going up, other parts the prices are coming down, you know that area, what is happening there? 

My tough today is different than my tough next week.Many new(er) investors struggle to manage their rentals well.

It's much more fully integrated, which works well for guests and hosts. 

As far as meetups go, you can find a lot of local events posted here on BiggerPockets: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521-real-estate-events-...I also have a list of Chicago meetups that I can share with you as well.

So I am assuming you were the lender on these properties and they did not manage them well and they went into foreclosure.

That home was in Milpitas CA.. probably worth about 1 mil today.. but I lived there 2 years sold it made over 50k and I was off to the races.. primary home equity as I look back 50 years of ownership and multiple homes has made me well over 2.5 million in tax free gains. 

Duplexes are very common here and are much easier to find than a Quad as well.

I have been looking as well and have started free trials for both JookSMS and EZTexting.

I am an investor friendly agent as well looking to start my journey in RE investing.