.- Given the demand, buying on through MLS will be tough.

I am looking at buying a townhouse in NYC that is currently designated as an SRO with two rent stabilised tenants living on one of the floors and the other floor unit is vacant.

Quote from @Nathan Gesner: Buying a house is straightforward; managing it can be a whole different challenge.

If you buy a 5 family alone, it's the same as buying a 20 family with 3 other partners.

Also need the right advisors when you do buy tp make sure its ran in the best way possible You can post "deals" all day long on this forum, provided there is no conflict of interest with yourself.

Defense was just something like I just wanted to buy a part of San Francisco for cheap, I wasn't planning to do anything sinister.   

Whenever you plan on buying a property in the future, do not take the seller agent word for it always do your due diligence and make sure you get a certificate from the township that clearly states how many units are legally allowed in that building. 

I think it would make my rental houses less appealing if, after coming up with a deposit and first month's rent, the tenants immediately had to buy appliances.

Remember that we make offers in real estate and if you want to buy a property but don't find that the numbers work at the list price.

So after being laid off a few times in the last 8 years I decided to get back into investing but this time focusing on buy and hold multi family real estate so that I could built wealth that could help me retire my wife who just had a long battle with cancer and survived , but is now back to work, and I want to give her a relaxing life free of all the stress of the world (by the way did I mention she is also in the mortgage lending field) so that explains the urgency to retire her from w-2 work !