I just heard from a friend's realtor that single family houses, in the western suburbs, that are priced over $500K on the MLS are slowing down.

No different than a single agent, just has multiple people that specialize in different areas.

I just purchased a single family about 8 months ago with no realtors involved my lender walked me through the process....

I purchased a single family home in 2013 solely for investment purpose and knowing that we would only live in it for 3-5 years and convert it into a rental. 

I  purchased my first single family, buy and hold rental a couple of months ago.   

But if you're just starting out and you don't have that, my recommendation would be to stay local.You will find it difficult to find a single family home in Rhode Island within the 80-120k range, unless you are willing to live in a very tough area and/or buy a house that needs a lot of work.

My goal is to have 500 cash flowing units by age 35 and i'm currently 19 years old. ( I will be uploading picture soon) Thinking in reverse I plan to do this buying my first property while in college whether that be single family or a duplex, as my months of research have deemed that this area isn't as strong as others when it comes to 2-4 units.

However, I was speaking with an attorney and he said that a simple single member LLC offers almost no asset protection at all, that if someone decides to sue much LLC it would be quite easy for them to go after my personal assets as well.

Both single and small multi family - 4 plex etc.

Single Family, or multi family?