The key is understanding your comfort level with managing multiple units right out of the gate.. 

There are multiple ways to invest in RE: single family, multi-family,  long term rentals, mid-term rentals, short-term rentals, rent by the room, commercial, co-ownership, syndications (I personally won't do syndications) etc. 

We manage multiple MTR units in the Indianapolis area.

Some agents might offer flexibility, like a non-exclusive agreement, especially if you’re upfront about your plans to explore multiple opportunities.

Keep us updated on what your lender says, and I’d be curious to hear if anyone else has pulled off multiple VA loans in a year successfully! 

There is another argument to do the 1031 and purchase multiple replacements with cash. 

Take that information and see what might work best for you right now in this position in life.House hacking is an awesome way to get started and even doing that can still be a bit difficult to cash flow today so run your numbers multiple times and do them well.

You can create multiple subsections. 

but if you have a view on active vs. passive income.my goal is to have income from multiple sources, ideally part time work that i enjoy is a component. 

, but I have money in multiple deals at the moment and want to just make my chunk and get out while my other projects finish and sell.