I made this mistake when I was starting out - I got excited about the returns of a development deal - but I didn't pay attention to the fact that I needed to be a cash flow investor because I did not have a W2 income, nor did I have sufficient passive income yet.It is critical for investors to understand the relative importance of evaluating the sponsor, alignment of interests and the deal.  

Is looking online at sites like LoopNet sufficient? 

Obtain estimates for planned renovations and confirm if the allocated budget is sufficient.

However, that's not sufficient.

That will completely break my self-sufficiency test. 

Yes, there is a chance the payment could be rejected for non-sufficient funds on the 19th, but I'm managing 400 rentals and it's pretty rare and the Tenants make good on it 99.9% of the time.

Your primary insurance policy with $300,000 in liability coverage should be sufficient in 99.999% of all lawsuits.5.

Being that you already have property management experience and feel confident in your ability to manage a single-family or multifamily property, it really comes down to your financial position.If you have a good amount of cash available to put a down payment towards the purchase of a property and maintain sufficient cash reserves (or if you have a partner you can work with who does), then there's nothing wrong starting off with a multifamily property. 

And my feeling is for MOST people Solo 401k is sufficient to meet their needs, and an actuary creating a custom plan is “overkill”.  

I think if you can write a solid letter of explanation stating that you are going to commute to Colorado from Washington for 4-5 months out of the year for your job (and why), that should be sufficient enough to run this as a primary residence.