If you wanted to do a 1031 exchange down the road to use that equity and trade up then that'd be a good idea.The homes I’m looking at buying are in the 330,000-350,000 range.

There is lots of information on how to analyze publicly traded REITs as well.

Additionally, for the AR llc, do I need to register the LLC in California as a foreign company?

The average company only survives for ten years, while even large companies typically last just 18 years.

I work for a property management company in Milwaukee, a very hot rental market currently.

@Steve Babiak, unless he registered with Pennsylvania as a contractor, he would not show up on there, the company as the OP stated is from NJ where he would be registered. he should be registered in PA if he is doing work there, so i agree, he should have shown up on those sites, i am a contractor in NJ but do not do work in PA, not even my own properties, so i do not show up on those sites.

The triplex is much more popular with traveling work crews for specialists in the trades and insurance relocations, so if we were to do it again, I would probably worry less about making each room it's own rentable space and save a little bit of those costs. 

You're using a company to manage tenant phone calls/inquiries and then send in vendors for repairs.

He is a contractor by trade and I am the sales and numbers guy to loosely define us.

I am a teacher by trade, but I am looking to get into real estate since I've been interested in it for years.