I found a civilian job working in aviation doing aircraft interior repair.

The multi family market is tight but occasionally they'll come up in the 7-9 cap range that can become 11-14 caps with some value add and other strategic moves..

Nicholas-Yes, notable work, nice to see a dedicated staffing to define and place a strategic plan to eliminate blight in neighborhoods, while in parallel attempting to enhance them through this service.  

Flip im making 80k roughly, but im 38 and really want to be strategic about holding. 

Frank Rolfe and Dave Reynolds have some excellent educational programs that cover acquisition, Don Wesphal is excellent on expansion issues, and my consultancy (Rishel Consulting Group) offers help in legally seller financing homes as well as strategic planning and capital acquisition.

Now, if you don't have many choices (good balance of your funds in taxable vs qualified accounts like IRAs), then I've done the analysis w/an investor in our syndication and their CPA to show it still makes sense to make the investment based on expected returns.However, since real estate is so tax efficient, strategically speaking if you have choices, ample cash in taxable and qualified plans, you should hold income producing investments inside your IRA that are not so tax efficient like notes that just distribute income in the way of interest.  

Your idea of buying a 4-plex should be possible AND strategic. 

That defines the envelope of prices that your area can actually support.Then you should strategize how to price yourself based on this envelope.Hope that helps.

You want an accountant that can help you strategize and who is responsive when you want to know the tax consequences of the decisions you are making throughout the year.Good luck and let me know if I can be of assistance. 

Got me thinking strategically and long-term and about my goals/wants in life.