I'll also need to focus heavily on networking and getting a good property manager.

Some smaller TIC's of just a few people can work.DST's are heavily laden with fees to the investor but have their place with poor 1031 investor planners or someone with a tiny amount to invest say 100k to 300k.

One thing we all did right investment wise was contribute pretty heavily in our IRAs over the years.At this point, we are mainly still interested in building wealth for retirement which is about 10-15 years away.

pp.83The number 1 reason to obtain a real estate licence is to have unlimited access to the MLS.I am heavily favoring getting my real estate lic. for this and other reasons but I am wondering what is the difference between what I see on redfin and what I will see with direct access to the MLS?

I am leaning heavily on sell.

I see tenant issues can one of the biggest issues/downfall; I will screen heavily!

However, my personal plan is to have 2-4 properties in this price range fully paid off in the next 3-5 years, cash-flowing, and serving as a "baseline" of sorts before I start getting heavily invested and leveraged.Opinions...thoughts?

I have read heavily on the subject, and I believe I know much more about evaluating a deal before buying it than a few other people did from the podcast stories I've heard.

Some states lean heavily in favor of the tenants and some favor landlords. 

Having my 2yo son definitely helps add fuel to the fire that was nothing more than glowing embers.3 Single Family homes & 1 duplexAll in stable low B to B+ areas and not far from another investment property I haveSounded as if I'd have one nightmare tenant I'd need to part ways withGross monthly rents $3800 - if I updated the units I am confident  I could at min bump that figure $500 or more a moTax value of properties ~$350k  (I need to get inside the SF properties but $330-400 is probably a realistic market value as is now for the properties retail wise)Owner said they'd sell for $380k and be willing to owner finance for 5 years (w possible balloon payment - I proposed those terms - no cash down)I really need to get into the 3 single family homes and the other occupied unit of the duplex, but drove by them all and they looked in pretty decent shape on the outside -- one of the SF's they just invested $40k in within the past 5 years or so due to a hoarder situation and deferred maintenance so the house has been heavily overhauled - most have newer roofs and were built in the 50's (which around here was a good time period for construction - good lumber, homes are brick etc, duplex built in 1979 - from the unit I was in it's just cosmetically dated which would be no big deal for me to fix once someone moved out to make it more desireable)What I was going to propose is if they would owner finance $380k - accept payments from me of $1055.56 per mo (380000 / 360 mos/30 years) - I'd pay the equity down for 5 years then at the end of year 5 we possibly renegotiate to pay part of it off by myself obtaining bank financing, all of it off, etc.Ideally I'd like to see if I could get them to do this same deal for $350k or a bit less but the numbers work at $380k for me with no cash in.