Or would it make more sense to buy the multifamily and re-sell for a profit and use those profits to buy my first rental?

This will give you and your agent a sense of direction as you'll have a clear sense of what your buying power is.

Dave, anyone can do it, in the sense that there are no licensing requirements (that I know of, anyway) to be a deal sponsor.  

This is an amazing process and makes so much sense, but I don't understand what happens directly after the contract is signed?

They're just a couple of tools that can sometimes make sense to use.

Johnny, My spidey senses tell me that if your company is big enough to offer a discount employee share purchase plan someone in the finance department or the IB that took them public made sure the shares have to vest for a nice LONG time.

I always have my investors do at least a 7-10 day inspection period just in case we need to re-negotiate on the price after the contractor reviews the property.Once my contractor looks at the property they can kinda tell me what they think is going on with the property and also give me an estimate on re-hab costs we like to make sure the numbers make sense there is a certain profit margin we need to make on every deal.

At the end of the day @James DuBois find a deal that makes sense and bring it to your parents.

It would be nice to syndicate deals and organize multiple deals that makes sense as done with the LLC but more often and larger scale that is manageable and comfortable.

If I live in Japan today, if the properties have positive cash flow and the numbers make sense, I will buy Japan properties when others scare today.