If the numbers work and you have sound exit strategies for the deals you analyze you will be fine. 100% agree with @Michael Ablan in that you likely wont make much on appreciation but you can easily cashflow and gain equity through debt paydown.Closing on a Triplex in the area here in a few weeks.

While I love gaining the experience, I definitely want a substantial profit the effort involved (even though sometimes there's very little effort :) )

I am also looking for a new part time job in a real estate/development field, In order to gain more experience in real estate.If your from the Levittown area maybe I can grab you a cup of coffee sometime.

So you're paying capital gains (20%) on $40,000 - $16,364 = $23,636.

That way, you get the tax preferential treatment of long term capital gains and still get to build up capital while you flip.

We have gained a lot of the lost value from the recession but we are still not back to the values we had before.

I am  very outgoing and socially inclined And would like to gain as much information as possible to help me progress in this career option

Beyond a certain critical, mass, the gains are exponential. 

Also, multi families tend to be more attractive for income-oriented investors rather than the capital gains-oriented SFH investing.

A lot of it depends on what you want to do with the capital and when you want to realize a taxable gain.