I'm a full-time DJ and music engineer and was blown away when Rihanna's producer for "B*tch Better Have My Money" brought up Rich Dad Poor Dad in his interview on Pensado's Place and talks about the importance of financial advice and awareness.

Not sure much beats producing real estate assets in a Roth.  

I'm all ears if you have a 'formula'... but I believe that algorithm is regional or local and may be difficult to produce.

My personal belief is that the rise of technology and job elimination has increased the importance of owning/controlling the means of income producing assets.  

The red tape and hoops that you have to deal with can be a nightmare and cause months of delay before you even touch a tree much less break ground.Also I agree with Devon, some architects do not live in reality (as a building contractor I live with it all to much) so it is important that you have a product to produce that you can not only sell in your market, but you can tweak and add value engineering to as you learn to construct your product, this can be equated to time or material, and is in my opinion the number one reason you would consider recreating a building multiple times and only change the façade. 

This first property needs to produce a $400-$500 in monthly return.

Also, I'm surprised that your property did not have a reputation from the student body, which would lead to an easier time finding tenants.

As an investor, assuming the numbers above hold and i rent out both units,  could I package the building as an "airbnb product" that is like a turnkey property that produces way better cashflows than an average rental and sell it for more money than i would get marketing it on the MLS.I know that anything less than 4 units is not considered commercial, so cashflow methods of valuation using cap rates dont apply.

Save money and only buy income producing assests

I definitely wouldn't mind owning a storage facility someday, I think those types of investments produce a large cash flow.