The area is growing and I anticipate rents going up as well as house prices, i don't want to bet on this but it does give me some comfort that equity will increase over the next few years.  

I firmly believe having control over your investments offers greater potential to grow and expand. 

Now that we're settled in our new home, I'm looking to find my first property in the next 6-9 months.I'm always looking to meet new people and continue to grow a real estate network. 

Even if you decide to switch the nature of the heating system, you should, and still may well be required, to perform this analysis.A detailed heat-loss model will also help you prioritize and plan improvements to the building envelope - such as air sealing and insulation.A few missing bits of information,  which may assist the BP community to provide you with some helpful ideas, include:size and organisation of the building: SFH, duplex, triplex, etc.

I still have a W2 but our portfolio has been consistently growing, since I started networking more. 

If we sell, our plan is to take our time to look into getting a multi family property maybe just outside the Bay Area (it's too expensive here) so we can continue to let the money grow.

Congratulations to your growing family!

It is known that the house flipping industry is growing and that to be successful in the business of flipping, you will want to buy homes at a discount in order to have nice margins when you go to sell. 

With no background in real estate, and surprised by the rapid and unreal escalation of real estate prices, he naturally called me all excited to ask what he should do.

This is the point which you have it all ... freedom, time, money, and a growing business.