After that, I would like to flip and possibly manage multi-family homes, single family homes and apartments.

We would like to free up some cash to make improvements on our current home, move out into a multi-family property, rent the other units in the property and then rent our current home. 

They also provide split roommate payments, screening, maintenance requests, applications, renters insurance, late payments, and expense tracking.

Due to the nature of my career (I'm an economist with a tenure track job), I have fairly idle summers.

A few recommendations:- "E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber (this will have you working on your business instead of in your business)- "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter (this provides a more foundational perspective on money)- "Cashflow Quadrant" by Robert Kiyosaki (further builds on the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" foundation)- "Set for Life" by Scott Trench- "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing" by David Greene- "The Book on Managing Rental Properties' by Brandon Turner and Heather Turner- "The Miracle Morning" by Hal Elrod-"HOLD" by Gary Keller (geared toward SFR)-"The ABCs of Real Estate Investing" by Ken McElroy (geared toward commercial investing)"Multi-Family Millions" by David Lyndahl (This is on my list of "To-Reads".

Even a site where you could look up sold multis with prices and then I could reverse engineer. 

(We are currently seeking multi family deals as well.)Background:We own a triplex in Hawaii and three properties in Florida; of which 2 are single family homes and one duplex.

@Ashley WolfeYes you can 1031 a multi unit into any other type income generating real estate.

It seems you are already on track with some of the avenues to find your first investment property. 

I’m in the philadelphia area and finally through some VERY hard work I was able to track down an interesting lead.