It was very challenging to coordinate the deal between the owner, his son (who was on house arrest in a halfway house in another city) and granddaughter and convince them we were there to help them get what they wanted and do it efficiently.

Once we hit our minimum passive income goals (basically W2 salary replacement) through monthly cash flow/real estate then we will re-evaluate and reallocate our savings strategy.

One suicide, one fell and hit her head on a case of canned cat food and bled to death, and one died of natural causes.Your application and/or lease agreement should have contact information of someone authorized to remove their belongings in the case of death or incarceration (this has happened).

We are reaching out to the old original owner with the criminal history (involving ordering a hit on his partner which occurred unsuccessfully, an IRS agent and the mail man).

Once I return I'll be able to hit the ground running and be set but in the meantime what can I do to jumpstart my real estate investing journey?

So....Do I hold and raise rents to market value..1500-1750, sell all three...tax hit of 45k each, home equity loan and purchase another, sell and do a 1031.  

For years those would sell for around $120,000 then the crash hit.

If not, within 5 minutes, your gut should tell you how efficient and organized the job is being run.

A little rent increase and a little expense efficiency goes a long way towards overall value.Also keep in mind SB 608 and how it will change financing coming up.

It's a goal that never ends, unlike having a set $ # goal.It treats increasing assets & decreasing debts more equally & it's not overly aggressive which could encourage over leveraging & return chasing.I know hitting this goal at a minimum, when dealing with large numbers, over 20-30-40 years will get me well past a defined/limited FI number needed for "standard" retirement.