One of the best advantages about REI is tax shielding, thus you can defer taxes to double net annual income if you do so through passive income.

Even though your market might prove expensive, I would exhaust all options before ruling it out.Truth is, you have a unique competitive advantage in your market.  

., and based on previous life experience, I am confident somehow, somewhere, someday, I'll be able to use this information to my advantage.

God knows what they think those hand-scrawled letters saying how they're innocuous ma-and-pa investors and day-glo signs on the public right-of-way are supposed to convince people of.However, the lack of disclosure and taking advantage of some owners really kinda goes against the grain on the Realtor Code of Ethics doesn't it?

Building equity in your house is one of the biggest financial advantages of homeownership.

Having cash ready to deploy is a huge advantage.

This is a great place to learn and to connect with people so take advantage of all the great resources.

To make the most of your time here, explore the forums, listen to the BiggerPockets podcast, and take advantage of the educational resources and blog posts.

In terms of scaling to three to four multi-family properties, you could really start using the equity that you do have to your advantage. 

It would be hard for me to pass up building a bigger place to take advantage of that creek view.