There also is not as much drivers out there. 

It's a federal crime to commit mortgage fraud, so recommend you and your wife actually owner-occupy each property as you've indicated - change your driver's license, your address with your company, report on your income taxes (you may have to file Married Filing Separately), etc. 

The best way to capture appreciation on a fourplex is the same strategy you would use for single family - buy in a growing market with solid, long-term fundamental demand drivers. 

Hardly any of my properties in the North East and CA cash flow; yet that are the primary driver in my wealth creation and balance sheet. 

We are all always acting on competing values and sometimes the little 'values' are the biggest drivers of behavior.

My opinion on economic drivers- 1) COVID fatigue, folks got stuck in their homes for long time.

I promote starting at the local level, where you can perform an accurate CMA, recognize social/economic drivers, evaluate rental market, meet local players, ....  

Doesn't really matter that he's an agent or if he was a truck driver or a barber.

Asset bubbles aren't driven by inflation, there's usually some other driver that causes one asset to outpace all of the others. 

Nope says the driver with a lock and chain in is hand.