Just finished the initial beginners guide book and now its time to put in the action to my ideas and dreams and get started!

I am looking for my next purchase at the court house steps, while I am working on a few more.

Yes, there's a lot of good If you get a chance, I'd read through The Ultimate Beginner's Guide and I wouldn't worry about trying to learn everything at once or before you make the first step.

She wrote back that he told her he received a "substantially" higher offer and that the very day he attempted to cancel his counter offer to me 9 hours early, he went into contract with another buyer.When I received the e-mail containing his written withdrawal of the counter I thought "oh well, that's that" and initially thought I had lost the right to accept his counter offer. 

Initial question that comes to mind is how they can obtain down payment to buy a new house given their equity is tied up in their current house.

I initially started by focusing on MF (bc it seems easier & scales more quickly) but I quickly realized a lot of the best metro areas with strong economies mostly only have great deals on SFR, not really on MF.Many of the great MF deals in America are in subpar metro areas (economically speaking).

Let this be the first step of many more on your RE journey.

I am considering using a 401k loan to supplement my cash on hand for down payment and initial reserves (for a 4 unit investment property).  

Just consider those when you look into your next step!  

Of course, if the person the deposit is payable to is the one moving out, the other person would have to step up with a deposit.