But my concern is that it will take time to get the business up and going, I don't know the market all too well yet, and I don't have a comfortable reserve of cash to supplement what I'd be getting from a FT job while I get the RE business off the ground (that and we're trying to plan a wedding).Given all of those moving parts, what would you say is the best strategy?

The experience and equity build-up will give you solid ground to use to make the jump to commercial (5+ units) multifamily.

You'll find a ton of resources here on BP to help you get started in the education phase.

I think the fact that I don't have large amounts of cash to get started (learn) with is what is keeping me in the reading, talking and podcasts learning phase of things.

Would moral grounds prevent you from doing this?

I'd love to be able to buy a plot of land and simply custom-build something from the ground-up if it's going to be a similar price as buying an existing MFH that I'm not 100% in love with.

I just need to mark level ground along 200'.  

So - the question is not what I would do, but what you could do, and this question is impossible to answer without know your back-ground and skill set...Makes sense?

I hope there's a middle ground between the two objectives.

But always the numbers have to work for us.Things have been crazy in some areas and Sydney in particular is going through an enormous growth phase.