I owned 6 rental units in a previous life, went about it all wrong, absolutely hated it and sold them all off 7 years ago (that's actually how I met my wife).

Retail investments, ALFs, small apartment complexes, and planned communities are all on the horizon, but my focus will be on organizing tools to help real estate investors raise, organize, and optimize their capital formation process.  

[Don't forget to check sold comps and actual market rents before believing pro forma figures!]

I also wasn’t aware of the way duplexes can be sold here!

Then a few months after that, it was sold to someone who bought it at $310K, the market price.

But he gave me great tools and information, as well as taking a lot of time to let me pick his brain. 

But as a buyer... makes no sense to ask the LA to be your agent too...I just lost out on a property even though my no contingency cash offer was $10k higher than what the property sold for.

If you sold all 7 properties for $900K, you could probably get yourself into a $3M+ multi-family property and pay no capital gains taxes.

The only problem is they sold their business (her grandpa and dad) and buy houses for cash only.

Transfer around with low interest offers if you can, like Stephanie mentions.In '07 I got a cash-out refi for $106k and sold it last year for $145k.