The good news is that I have a small pile of cash that I'd like to put into play.  

I assume you had a financing contingency and if that is still in play simply cancel your contract under the financing contingency.

I been playing with lists I've put together, skip tracing landlords and asking if they want to sell and if not how about buying?

There no reason to wait any time or have any “whichever is lower” rule come into play.

I think index funds are a great way to diversify, definitely a long term play though.

Commission, bonuses, the LLC AirBnB property management business you have, your real estate agent work on Schedule C, royalties from your books, etc - for that slice of your income, it'll be based on tax returns.

Generally speaking with 4 one bedrooms like you have here the play would probably be to go with baseboard electric heat.

I realize a lot of factors are at play when arriving at this number, aiming for average cost per sf in NNJ in a nice neighborhood.

-Are rents justifying the increase or is there a variable factor playing a significant role that I have yet to distinguish?

We are playing it close because we only have 11k in the business checking account and 9k in the savings account to run the business.