Project managers, while helpful, often upcharge, and their incentives don’t always align with keeping costs in check.Since you have your brother-in-law as a resource, that’s a huge plus.

Starting locally vs. out of state:I always recommend starting locally if it aligns with your goals.

Quote from @Ricardo Lemus: For a newer investor, a good investment is a property that pays for all expenses with some cash left over.

Thanks to everything I’ve learned from the podcasts, books, and this community, my wife and I currently own:A triplex in MaineA single-family rental in San AntonioA single-family primary residence in Las Cruces, NM, which will become a rental when we move in a few monthsFor context, I'm an active-duty Army officer with about 12 years left until retirement, and my wife works for a university in Boston.

Multi-family for me has been the way to go and has left me assurance that even during vacancy, I will be covering most of my mortgage. 

If you lose your job, get into a financial problem that your bank learn about, bank will cut you off your HELOC lifeline in a snap and you will not have anything left to recover as all your money will be stuck into your home principal.

Hi Srikanth, I’ve been investing in Cleveland neighborhoods with a similar focus, targeting properties that align with appreciation potential while attracting quality tenants.

This is the fork where I'm not sure if I'd be good to get some CRE exp and invest in learning about how to review deals for the next 2-3 years, or focus on generating revenue for investment purposes and watch how things are done as a LP.My personality more aligns with networking, reaching out to people, connecting, navigating difficult situations and finding solutions that work.

It was my back being out of alignment favoring that leg.  

In the "industry", you would use an "Acquisition/Rehab" loan that allows you to use part of the loan to apply to the purchase of the property and you'll have some loan funds left over to use for the rehab.