@Anne MusaIt's great that you're looking into small multifamily and STR/MTR investments to build wealth and secure your family’s future!

Purchase price: $516,000 Cash invested: $600,000 Converted mixed-use 3 residential and large commercial space into 5 residential units and one mixed-use Building.

The big pro that sticks out to me in Birmingham is the tax rate. 

House hacking by purchasing a duplex, triplex, or single-family home with extra rooms can help you reduce or eliminate housing costs while building equity.

If you sell it, you get $250k single / $500k married exemptions from capital gains.Speak with a tax professional about how much you'll save in taxes by doing this. 

Property taxes creep up, exterior repairs , and a brand new HVAC last year wiped out $11k of reserves.

Don't be discouraged by the lower returns—house hacking is often about long-term wealth-building, and your primary residence can offset some of those mediocre numbers.Make sure you're accounting for local trends and realistic rents—sometimes expected rent growth is overly optimistic, or costs like repairs might be underestimated.

The problem is that we need to be careful with the word "passive" because it has a very specific meaning in the tax law, and it is not intuitive.For example, losses from rental properties are usually passive but not always, there are some exceptions.

The only way to know if your idea is worth doing from a wealth building standpoint is to do the math:  What is the cost to acquire?

Was the home in a build to rent community, meaning it was all investor owned houses?