It is essential that you figure out how to manage your income and expenses before you invest, not only because this is how you can save up the initial seed capital to invest but also because investing in real estate is nothing more than analyzing and managing income and expenses, only done over a long period of time (for buy and hold) and done on a larger scale with leverage.

And then I did it again the next month and currently in the process of scaling. 

In speaking with the management company I would use if I do this deal, that is the upper percentile for rent for these type of properties in the area, so there is not much room for rent increases.Included in this package next to the 4 duplex properties is an existing manufactured home that has long time tenant paying $600 per month.

We are exploring the idea of using such a platform with a Reg D 506c offering to advertise and scale our business.I've been researching Fund America, CrowdStreet, InvestorFlow, Wealth Forge and a few more.Any recommendations or experiences with these platforms?

Correct me if I'm wrong, the last 2nd to last R is refinance, which is more to pull your portion of your equity out so you can continue to do more deals and scale your business, less about flipping and exiting out the property completely.

Btw, a cap rate alone doesn't mean much if we do not talk about appreciationSure mate,It's quite simple for meI run 3 companies and a staff of 20.I negotiate hard and find deals where nobody is lookingMost are very distressed and need a tonne of work.15% net would be the minimum I would do for my personal portfolio and the numbers just go up from there.I'm in the process of buying a 10 unit in a B class up and coming area that i will be into for a total of $200,000 with projected net rents of $40,000+ (I'm keeping the numbers very basic here)So, no offense but I wouldn't let you know as I keep such deals for myself lolI suggest you look into the Midwest as there are many blue collar working class markets (No where near ghetto) that offer amazing numbers.You just have to manufacture the numbers from the start and then have a good team in place to make it work.Team work makes the dream work in any market no matter what the online stats are showing regarding the demographics and unemploymentMuch successps.

If written plans were not part of the contract, then you know your answer, which is #2 (sorry).Most contractors do not draw plans anyway; architects create plans (to scale, etc).

It's a good way to scale in my opinion if you are doing it right and watching your numbers.

Appreciation is typically more aggressive and reliable over time, so as your value silently grows, you can leverage and scale your portolio much faster, and as your ROI grows exponentially across your portfolio, not ony will you likely achieve FIRE more quickly, but you'll create generational wealth.I'm definitely biased because I've seen what this type of investing can do for my own family and have also seen so many investors pivot after seeing the reality of those high cash flow investments. 

Maybe it doesn't happen, maybe slumlords hold the neighborhood back, but if Bushwick & Bed Stuy NY and Skid row/The Mission in SF turned hot, I think west end could pull it off at 1/10 the scale ie most renovated houses being worth close to 100k in the next 2/3 years and rents at or above 1k a month, conservatively.