What are the steps involved?

If I reinvest it doing a 1031 there I will have 800k cash, and I would need to buy at least 1.2 mil in property for the 1031 to fully work.I would like to be actively involved in real estate.

We now are considering trying to make deals by ourselves without involving the agent.

I often times ask for what I'm looking to for from an agent and then they send me multiple listings.  

If you plan to do more projects in the future and don't want to keep taking credit hits and providing paperwork, and you are very confident that your numbers work, then a HELOC may be more suitable for long-term investing for multiple properties..

For me, that makes life easy because I don't have to negotiate commission with you (since its paid by the seller), you won't need the hand holding of a first time buyer, and you are someone who will buy and may likely buy multiple times.

I'm a big fan of SFR for multiple reasons and have never really wandered into the multiplexes.I've heard that 10 is the maximum number of loans you can obtain.

No realtors would be involved. 

I am by profession an intellectual property lawyer and I have been living in Sweden, London and in the US (long story, but lots of commuting involved).  

I found who I thought would be the perfect tenant, passed all of the screenings, met her, multiple phone conversations, everything was great.