Not all investors share the same goal.If it's strictly positive cash flow, you're going to have a tough time meeting that goal while living in one of the units these days in Belmont Shore.Under the current economic decisions, if you're going to live in one of the units, a more realistic goal might be to subsidize your mortgage with the other two incomes to bring your mortgage payment down, build equity, ride the market appreciation, force some appreciation of your own, refinance when rates are in your favor to crush the mortgage payment down, and keep positive cash flow for a long-term goal.Belmont Shore is a nice area where homes hold their value well and enjoy good appreciation as well as strong rents and in general, the type of renters landlords are looking for.Belmont Shore is also a good area for short-term rentals and you may want to consider renting one unit as an LTR and the other as an STR.Ultimately, your situation is going to dictate whether this triplex is a good investment for you and your husband but as a Long Beach resident, I know that Belmont Shore is an area that people aspire to buy a home in.

And the owner is paying you not only to enforce common sense rules, but to understand the ADA and the proper & legal way to hande a request for a reasonable accommodation.Most city and county governments have a position called an ADA Liaison (or something to that effect) whose position exists to train local businesses and landlords on ADA requests and what is reasonable / unreasonable as it pertains to accommodations (often the same person that gives training once or twice a year at the local Board of Realtors, so you might even be able to reach out to them for a point of contact).Rather than operating in a vacuum, or taking your advice from a public forum, why not reach out to that person in your jurisdiction and get an opinion straight from the horse's mouth?

I've shifted my focus from textbooks to spending quality time with my dad, who hasn't been feeling well lately, and I'm aiming to build up some savings through investments.Now, I don't have a car, but I have a friend who works nights and has kindly offered to give me rides anywhere between 3am and 4pm.

Well, it's boring if you don't like scuba, snorkeling, boating, swimming, fishing, the Mayan ruins, Xcaret, riding around in golf carts, a marina, Dolphin Encounter, etc. in a very secure, safe environment that has a very low crime rate, and is constantly patrolled.

I do acknowledge I have a hard road ahead and missed the free ride part of the trip. 

So lets say we're good at market cap rate 6-8, then for the next 10 years you would ride til cap rate 4-5 again , but then during this point of market cycle 3 or 4 cap rate, then cap rate would regress to cap rate 6 again (aka losing valuation every 8-12 years).This cyclical thing in MF, we don't have that problem in residential.In today's 5% CD rate, I am feeling very safe if I have to buy primary with 5-6% ; or invest at CD ; but with multifamily volatility and rent dropping, it's not good investment outthere.

Returns- flip at  say 5 year plan or if you have to hold to ride out the market.  

Let's ride! 

It has been quite a ride. 

Assuming I had the experience, I would only buy a place with structural issues if I had 1) an experienced and trusted structural engineer telling me a clear, and verifiable explanation of the cause(s) of the problem and a viable and affordable solution, 2) trusted and experienced tradespeople who would be implementing the solution (carpenter, mason, etc.) confirming with me that they could fix the issue (with 90% or higher confidence that the issue could be resolved within budget), and 3) confirmation from city inspectors that the issue (and an inability to fix the issue) would not result in condemnation/revocation of occupancy permits. ...and even then, I'd only proceed if I had the cash reserves to ride out a major series of unexpected problems (e.g.; time overruns, budget overruns, unexpected revocation of occupancy permits from the city, etc.)