After house hacking the 3-4 unit for 3 years, I intend to pull out what equity I can, along with the cash savings from my W2 and cash flow from my SFH (which will increase to $500 a month after I move out) to buy a larger commercial property.Any advice or input would be greatly appreciated!

I invest in C properties and some units are left just as nice as the tenant(s) entered them and some are a wreck (my one-bedroom apartments tend to stay in the best shape - larger properties with kids typically get wrecked to some degree). 

If so or if not did you see any negatives against using two smaller units in a room versus just one larger?

The more rentals you have the larger reserve you need to keep.

With more services moving to the suburbs, home shoppers are making the choice to move farther out.

If it's a larger organization, feel free to inquire about their different staff qualifications.2.

I am a Mechanical engineer by education but an investor/entrepreneur by choice.  

At that point I would think it would make sense to jump to larger buildings where you can get the economies of scale as well as better financing options. 

Stories like this make me think twice investing out of state, but I have no choice if I want to continue to invest in real estate (I'm in China at the moment).

I think it’s easy to say, after the fact of owning rentals, starting off with flips or larger multis is the best route.