I had great work ethic, and im extremely intelligent, but without college, I became a tradesman, had to work my a$$ off to save money, and now I'm 41, still working in that same trade, and I wasnt able to scale nearly as quickly as I would have had I stayed in school, get my accounting degree (my major at the time I left), and got a high paying job.I'm not saying that it cant be done, and I wish you all of the thick in the world, but for every Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, there are a million of me.

I personally find the Series LLC to be a great tool for the individual investor who is planning to expand their operation, as it allows for you to scale infinitely - check out this article to learn more.

There is no way to account for all economic, market, political variables that could play into a large scale syndication.

I personally prefer to keep it simple until I scale beyond that point. 

People invest out of state all the time and works but I think its the level of scale.  39 units for a new investor is a lot. 

They allow you to scale up quicker than single family.

As far as SFH vs MFH - it varies from one investor to another but in general, if you want to scale faster then MFH investing is your answer.2) continue saving funds while educating yourself.3) start going to local REI events found here via BP/Network/Events and Meetup4) read some books on personal development to help build up the right mindset.

My reasons are real estate specific and wonder if I can scale up much faster elsewhere while lowering housing costs as well. 

I can easily google for 50-200 acre plots of undeveloped land all over the U.S. for under $100k, but I'm thinking there's another level of scale I'm not seeing, such as government grants, auctions, etc.

No matter where you live or where you own assets, I personally recommend the Series LLC to be a great tool for the individual investor who is planning to expand their operation, as it allows for you to scale infinitely for FREE.