After 35 years of investing and living through three market and one real estate crash,  I have learned that the key is to stay sufficiently liquid (so you do not have to sell during inevitable downturns) and diversify your assets so that you have eggs in more than one basket. 

I've bought a second property using cash and at the beginning of this year I refinanced my own house in Canada to buy three more properties in the Cleveland area.

It includes all major assets & liabs, inc some pers prop that has value (or is individually insured) & I would consider selling to fund new found opportunities or if there was a major emergency requiring a change in budgeting/liquidity.My PBS is currently three pages long, broken into sections w/ sub totals to assist in analysis:AssetsReal Prop (Assessed, Purchase/Rent data, 2-3 free online providers like Redfin, then averaged.)Personal Property (Cars, Art, Hard Assets, things not in an account or "foggy" daily market value)Cash Accounts (ie funds w/ access not limited by age, Banks, Brokerages, CVLI, prepaid taxes,large pending incomes like insurance settlements & reimbursements owed to me.)MineSpouseCo-AccountsRetirement Accounts (or anything where access to the value is age restricted)MineSpouseBusiness 1 (Net number carried over from separate business records)Business 2 (List as needed)Liabilities (Would section these out too if I had enough to justify it)Listed in order of assets above if tied to such, mortgages, HELOC, etc.General liabilities listed next, largest to smallest.Net Worth CalculationThen I include several lines of totals; subtotal of amount available for conversion to REI, ratios & simple measures like mo / mo & trailing 12 mo avg % & $ return.My FI goal is over the long term to average at least 1% mo / mo gain in net worth.I have found this to be best for me for several reasons:I have a hard time visualizing a set $ amount as a goal because my amount required to retire would then seem too big to tackle.

There are three 4 plexes available near me.

As for now I've always been interested in buy and hold REI and I heard that for your first "house" you can purchase a 4-plex, live in one apartment and rent out the other three.

In the background, the first Commercial Lender came back and said Congrats I got the loan approved with the terms we discussed at 6.875% on a three year callable, NOWHERE near the quoted 5.75%.

The tenant has three five-year options on the lease that are $16k lower than the first three years on the NNN lease. 

@Pedro Tavares FWIW, I'm installing PV panels on what used to be an SFR and is now three units. 

The other is a three family purchased in 2016 (FHA Loan).

I just moved to the Phoenix area to attend school (ASU) from North Carolina, where I was stationed for a few years.I have a beautiful wife and three boys who I'm trying to build a legacy for, I need to find a way out of the rat race and have been directed here to consume as much knowledge as possible.