We have simply grown from there. 

We got started with a personal residence and have grown from there.

Having grown up on the North Shore when you say you want to invest " in the Boston Market, and towns/neighborhoods within a few train stops from downtown."

The house could also need a new roof in the first 5 years (with a couple of other "minor" issues) and has not grown in value that much over time (2-3% annually).

I have grown unsatisfied with their performance. 

As we have grown our portfolio, we're moving away from smaller properties and are in fact selling the single families we have this year, and talking about selling our duplexes and fourplexes to roll them into a single, bigger asset. 

I've grown up in Seattle, and like you, found I knew people in almost every field I was going to need.

You probably won't be able to do 1031 exchanges from a syndication model, but even paying the tax on the capital gains, your $120K investment for each deal should have grown by 25-50%, meaning that when you reinvest that appreciation, you will receive more income, assuming that same 8% and growing annual return.Of course, this assumes that everything goes right in every deal, which is a big assumption.  

My first deal in REI started out as a 50/50 partnership with someone who had a lot of experience, it's since grown into a much more complicated situation (for the better!)

Unlicensed broker yanked them around and then disappeared.