It is important before you start and get to far that you have an aim point...  

For apartments, I recommend you start with 'Crushing It in Apartments and Commercial Real Estate' by Brian Murray. 

I thought this would be the best way to make my dream come true.Congratulations, Sounds like you are off to a great start as a family!

Hi Dan, Refinancing at a lower LTV will make your monthly expense lower which helps your monthly cashflow but will also help you to secure a lower interest rate so that could be a good starting point for you. 

On the other hand, having a full-time W2 job will prevent you from qualifying for REPS.

Might be a good place to start! 

We are initially looking at single families to start out but is a duplex a better option for some additional cash flow, or 2 smaller single families?

The process can start the day after you close and usually takes about 3 weeks to get you the funds right back to your account. 

There definitely has been an uptick in the number of STRs since we started renting out our first property at the beginning of COVID.

I'm about to start my 1st out of state STR, but 2nd overall STR property in the portfolio with 3 years of experiencing managing a property in Joshua Tree by myself without a co-host/property manager.