Focus on 3 and 4 units, which will generate more income, have a lower cost-per-unit price, and better economies of scale.

Start small, prove to your wife you can do it and then scale.

Improve standards of living for my tenants by increasing the rents and qualify better scale tenants Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

That extra spread is what allows you to keep scaling as you can use this incremental capital (debt) to acquire more.The difficult part that I see for most investors is balancing this leverageable equity and acquisitions while maintaining or improving the cashflow as you acquire more and more.Sometimes you hit your equity numbers but you went into areas with less and less rent to value ratios so your cashflow is actually incrementally going down.

The goal is to scale with less closings. 

You live for free, and scale by purchasing a new multi family and moving to the new property and be owner occupied each time.

You've got to be all in & scale that sucker to at least 300+ units for it to be worth the hassle of the tenants, owners & city treating you like their personal punching bag. 

If you’re on a tight budget, avoid major projects like changing siding, roof color, or large-scale landscaping projects.

Cash is king but credit is needed to scale if you want to expand your RE empire.I hope this helps and have a good one.

Seller has scaled to larger units (150+ units) and this property is outside of his local range so the property management has slipped and vacancies are increasing.