I also recommend starting small with a duplex or single-family home to learn the ropes before scaling up

My longest recent rehab was 2.25 months and added a half bathroom, took down 4 walks including load bearing, put up 3 walls, new plumbing, electrical, flooring, huge percentage of drywall, an eye brow porch, new kitchen with full layout change and new bathroom with full layout change.  

After years of focusing on my career and building financial stability, I’m ready to dive into real estate investing and start creating passive income and long-term wealth.My short-term goal is to purchase my first duplex or single family rental. 

Quote from @Jaron Walling: @Tanya Maslach What was the asking the price and what was your original offer?

A huge number of properties we have looked at would have issues on this front.It can lead to an opportunity to improve the value of a property if you can buy it with an illegal area, get that area legalised and then sell on with a higher value that the bank would lend against, but it's not clear cut and it seems though that there are almost two levels of 'legalisation' - we were able to register all of the annex on the plans and could fully incorporate a portion of it but there is another portion that is too close to the back boundary wall that should only be used for things like storage and not ever for habitation. 2) During the purchase process be careful, amongst other issues with this property we had the situation where the seller's lawyer was not actually a lawyer (having been struck off).

On point #2, I should have started with a duplex or triplex, lived in the crappiest part and rented the others out while I rehabbed that one, then moved, rented out my unit and did it again.

The beauty is, you can rinse and repeat, moving your equity up the ladder of properties, from a small duplex in Austin to a bigger aprtment complex in San Antonio, or even pivot into a promising commercial spot right here in the Phoenix area.I remember a friend of mine who started off nervous as heck about his first exchange.

Maybe a duplex if you're lucky, but definitely a SFR.

., a duplex or multifamily), you may qualify for a conventional loan with as little as 3%-5% down.HELOC or Cash-Out Refinance: Use the equity you’ve built in your current property to secure a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) or cash-out refinance.

I expect it to be moderate size rehab which to me means no significant plumbing or electrical and no walls being added or removed.