The single family rental product has to be tailored to long term tenancy or they are losers.The rest of my expenses are carefully underwritten and basically match my pro-forma. 

If anybody could link me to any great RE books, podcasts or how or where I should start, just basically starting, then growing.

I purchased a whole bunch of real estate books to learn all the basics so I can engage intelligently in real estate related conversations and plan to join a local meetup group today. 

First off real estate is not a "job" but more of a career .you are an independent contractor, basically self employed, What you put into it you get out of it, you do not draw a wage or a salary , you are paid a commission, you get paid when a property closes. lets say you sell a property for 300,000 and the commission is 18,000.

But so you can answer let put down some basics.   

Rent larger home, use cash to rent a smaller home/move to retirement community (disadvantage: less community of older folks; advantage is we can continue to own the home but make money off of the rent payments; but now we have to manage new renters)Basically asking if anyone has experience moving to a retirement community, and what the optimal move is with our current real estate assets.Where could we talk to similar people in this situation?

Workforce class C housing in NYC ranges from $50k -$200k+/door.Not sure what type of capital you have, patient or fund equity... however a lot of owners in NYC are basically buying the dirt and/or are buying as legacy assets and capitalize on the appreciation. 

Construction cost will run between $100-250 per sq-ft depending on how basic (or nice) the design and whether you act as general contractor.

I’ll say in my region: the commercial retail market is taking a massive nose dive, that I can be certain of.

Take some classes at home depot or Loews on basic home maintenance, like fixing toilets and faucets and outlets and such, to save money on repairs.