My advice would be to look at Sacramento city proper, as well as West Sacramento and Citrus Heights.

Even 5% annual compounding is $3.5m in 30 years.I don't know what you'll be able to do or plan on doing, but my main point is to focus on how deals can go wrong or how a deal can be plumped up artificially with a few small tweaks in underwriting so you can properly decide if a deal is right for you or not. 

As copied and pasted from above-(1) more than one-half of the personal services the taxpayer performs in trades or businesses during the tax year are in real property trades or businesses in which the taxpayer materially participatesThat's how I understand the W-2 problem... it is hard to say you spend more time on real estate than any other activity if you work 2,080 hours.Another consideration is how much you rely on the W-2 income for lifestyle versus rental income.

Take ownership of your mistake and learn to do the proper due diligence recommended above😊

(For SF rentals, the odds are surprisingly low if you are managing your business properly.)

But the situation did get me to start thinking on how to properly analyze a small multifamily house.I've only invested in SFRs so I'm a little green when it comes to properly analyzing a duplex.

Wealthy 2nd homeowners looking for someone to manage their home 11 months out of the year will gladly pay higher fees if you can demonstrate you’ll properly take care of their home and perform well.

From personal experience- electric can be very easy, because if wired properly, all circuits should be separate already and connect to one breaker box.

I'm looking mostly for if I buy a 4-unit quadplex (example, or Triplex), how to calculate NOI, Monthly Cash Flow, Rehab, Cap Rate, Cash-on-Cash, etc.For example, whenever I find a property on Crexi, Loopnet, MLS, etc. the NOI sounds good but when you factor in mortgage to get the cash flow, it's almost always negative.I also don't know how to properly calculate a rehab to see ARV so that may be the other issue.

OR you can make money when you buy with properly structured financing.