Because you cant use the money for another 13 yrs and don't plan to retire for 20, you could easily have the properties paid for and creating upwards of 4 times the gross rent you are receiving now.Now of course there is an argument of why would you buy property at some of the highest price levels we have seen, but remember that you started with a $35k investment - that can be parlayed in to much stronger cash flow and value for the long term.

Most syndications have a min of $50K so you could parlay that into a couple different syndications and geographically diversify yourself.  

Jumping into self-managed rentals with no experience and/or limited capital is very much a sink-or-swim wager, but that wager becomes a lot less risky a few years down the line with a little more financial leeway and a lot more experience behind you.If you have any questions about the Birmingham market or what we do at Spartan, or just TK in general, I am more than happy to chat via PM.All the best,Clayton

Also any recommendations on how they can parlay this into a visa.

My plan is to parlay this first-time build experience into a career in development as my core focus.  

Because of that I'm trying to do as much information gathering as possible and peruse for opportunities, but at the same time I don't feel particularly rushed because I don't think that it's a prime buyer's market right now and I want to make sure that when I do buy a property it will be at a price/income point that will give me a headstart on parlaying that first investment into additional properties. 

If you think Romana is done, you can always parlay that for something better like Amit mentions.

I definitely wouldn't consider myself a millionaire just because I had a million in assets without subtracting liabilities.There's no real rule for "millionaire" status, its not a club or anything, but I'd wager that anyone with any sense when they are throwing that term around are thinking net worth. 

I'm trying to decide what my next strategy is to maximize potential of my duplex and parlay that into building my real estate portfolio in order to create wealth.

If your property is in Huntington Beach, and you don't have a ton of equity, I'd wager your property isn't insured for anything close the the loan value.