Would love to connect with local RE agents and have an idea of the market situation in SA.

I would check your market analysis.  

I feel a loss of direction and that makes it really hard for me to focus and build.Do we keep at building a portfolio of small multi family (very abundant in my market, very rare to find anything above a triplex for sale), with plans of selling the portfolio and 1031'ing into larger properties? 

Many of these lenders allowing 2nds behind them are more expensive capital (10's - 13's in our current market [high rates - but now showing signs of coming down]).

I'm thinking apartments.com for marketing, leasing and maintenance requests.

We've seen this soooo many times in our Detroit market:(Have actually had owners choose not to do business with us because their previous PMC didn't require it - so, they thought we were the incompetent ones.Have also seen incompetent PMCs wiring funds internationally to owners - and these owners not having an ITIN, EIN or SSN!

Guaranteed Returns: A fixed 7% is impressive in today's market and provides predictability unmatched by most investments.2.

In short, I’m trying to figure out if it’s worth pursuing an off-market seller financing deal versus getting a traditional loan and competing for the property on the open market.

To start your journey, I recommend focusing on building your network by joining meetups and engaging in online forums, while narrowing down your first investment based on your budget, market, and goals.

Recently, our real estate agent did a market analysis and estimates we can sell for between $575K-$585K, resulting in a net gain after all of our fees of about $100K.