My family and I picked up a triplex in the high desert not too long ago and looking to continue.

If the market does not cooperate, or you can't continue to make payments since your cash flow is negative you may find yourself in a stressful situation.  

I'll continue to learn from my mistakes and keep pushing forward!

Further, given the heat and continuing dampness its likely there's mold. 

I am going to continue to read real estate and investing books, read forums on Bigger Pockets, and listen to the podcasts for the rest of this year into 2019 to arm myself with knowledge to make the process easier come time to take action. 

I have found that equity can play a significant role when trying to cash flow. 

Continuing on your path and buying a multi-family unit every six months to a year would get you scaled up pretty quickly in five years.

You just have to be cognizant of the rules.In order to play the game you need to know the rules and how others manipulate them.

A buddy of mine in tech was telling me how he was playing with the idea of creating a solution to make the closing process even faster and reduce closing fees.

He even used bolt cutters on the padlock to continue squatting!