My ultimate goal is to rely solely on my investments as I get older.

This has ultimately led to the success of owning our own home ( AGAIN in less than three years for me, and for the first time for her) My wife is the first person in her family to ever own her own home.What blows me away is I thought my foreclosure would destroy my wife's awesome credit that she has worked so hard for her entire life.

Check out the  Ultimate Free Beginners Guide   here on BP

Ultimate Free Beginners GuideWhile it won't all be about Multi family it will give you a background to start with. 

Be sure to read through The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing to help you get started.Also - here's a couple articles you might enjoy:The 21 Best Real Estate Investing Books Ever How to Rent Your House: The Definitive Step by Step GuideHow to Be a Landlord: Ten Tips for SuccessFinally -be sure to setup some keyword alerts - especially for "Rockledge" so you can jump into local conversations.See you around the forums!

If you want your food business to thrive and not just survive week to week then it takes much, much more for success.I have been all capacities from worker, to assistant manager, to manager, to an owner in the food industry.  

Time to build the foundation below.Check out the Start Here page http://www.biggerpockets.com/starthere Check out BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide - A fantastic free book that walks through many of the key topics of real estate investing.Check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast - A weekly podcast with interviews and a ton of great advice.

I decided to go ahead and pay some experts to help me shorten that learning curve and ultimate save some money (I believe!)

i agree with lonnie but let me build on that. first, your credit report is based largely upon your pay history. paying early does nothing to boost your score ,but paying late will reduce your score quickly. so, pay on time. next, CARRY A BALANCE. it will actually lower your credit score if you do not use a decent portion of your avaliable credit. also, maxing out your credit cards will also hurt your credit, it is optimal to carry between 30-50% balance of your avalible limit on your cards. do not worry about intrest as long as what you are purchasing is ultimately going to gain you more in value that the cost of the intrest. i.e. why would you worry about a 25% intrest rate if you are going to make 50% on the house you are investing in?

Time to build the foundation below.Check out the Start Here page http://www.biggerpockets.com/starthere Check out BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide - A fantastic free book that walks through many of the key topics of real estate investing.Check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast - A weekly podcast with interviews and a ton of great advice.