As many investors have echoed - NYC is a very expensive marketYou have the following options1) Investing in NYC - require large capital and a good choice if you are banking on appreciation in the future.2) Invest in upstate NY or CT/MA/PA/NJ3) Invest through a turnkey property4) Househack(may be difficult in NYC but doable in parts of NJHave you looked into attending any local real estate events in NYC? 

Congratulations on all your success in real estate so far and best of luck in the future!

My question came up as a result of using the Rental Property calculator and looking at the future cash flow/return model...Most listings in my market (San Diego) don't come close to passing the 1% rule... however, I still run the numbers to start looking at how close I can get to positive cash flow and what has a bigger impact on the numbers (purchase price, reno costs, etc.). 

Almost every multifamily deal I look at does a future or best case scenario Proforma.

And finally, by focusing on becoming the right person through habits, you will have had the opportunity to save your own money to invest, or better yet, become attractive enough of a person to attract capital from your future mentor and/or other partners.Best of luck in your future!

Your input will undoubtedly be helpful for future analyses.

Having experience in both real estate and construction I feel would be a good combination of skill set, education and experience in both fields with what I eventually want to do in the future. 

@Michael Pears I understand the capital tied up in the properties and that limiting me from purchasing other deals in the immediate future, however, the cash flow that these three units are producing, I would need to put at least as much if not more capital into three or more other properties to get the same amount out.

It sounds from your description that it is.However, because you also do personal activities in the room (play games on your desktop), it doesn't sound like this would pass the "exclusive use" rule.Playing the games on your laptop in a different room would likely qualify the room as "exclusive use" as a home office.Also note that in the future if you take this deduction, there is a simplified method you can use to reduce the records you have to keep - just multiply the square footage of the office by $5 (if it is under 300 total square feet).

@Antonio Quinones How do you expect us to predict the future?