I actually had to get enough units where I could offer tenants multiple housing options when I purchased properties rented at way under market rates and then (an embarassing number of times) personally watch tenants that would "suffer" from a rent increase turn down smaller (but nicer places) or  nicer places in a less prestigious zip code (sometimes only minutes away) before I realized that I was hampering my ability to earn a living in order to subsidize the lifestyle choices made by a some random stranger that happened to live in a property I bought.

I've read several books on REI thus far but realize that the great minds on this forum can also provide significant and relevant insight on strategies they'd apply in current market conditions if they could start over with $250k in cash.For context, my family and I reside out-of-country, at the moment, but will likely return to the US in 1-2 years.

Since you are just graduating college you may already realize that it's not what you know, but who you know (as a personal note, I had college friends that were barely passing their classes however they ended up with really good paying jobs due to "who they knew").

People think they can succeed without even realizing you need a proper foundation to build anything worthwhile....and that foundation has been, and always will be, Geometry and Algebra. 

Once my house is fixed it is going to cause an issue for my neighbors house and potentially the next house after that.I am hoping that they will realize that this impacts the entire block and not just my house... 

I realize that doesn't help you now.  

I just realized tonight that if I can get a place on seller financing or subto, I don't HAVE to move my family into a multi-family for one year before we can move on and move up!

I realize they live in the same structure as you do so this is hard.

If you have 500k in equity, not sure what the actual equity is: would you rather - repurchase your current property and assume and 2.6% rate ORfind some other investment that is made with the intention of being an investmentYou said the house is large and new - so current chances that you need major CAPEX is low but as this home ages and is in an expensive market realize that those updates will also be expensive.

It is still profitable, but just another consideration for people who get heart eyes when seeing the cash flow but don't realize the maintenance they are getting into.