That gets a bit more complicated and is best suited for "trading" real estate (wholesales or flipping). 

Either route and the investors personal circumstances may often have a different tax consequence that might essentially determine which route or business model the investor decides to utilize.

First step is to sell our enormous FL house and shed all the costs associated with it, trade it for a simpler way of living.

I found myself here after googling something about an Investopedia email (got an offer for an "Unlimited Funding Investor Kit") and realized I can learn everything here instead.I'm really new to investing and have only thought about investing in RE in the future, so I might not be active right now, but I bookmarked the page for later; I started trading currencies less than a month ago so I've been spending time learning the in's and out's of that one.Glad to be here and I hope to learn as well as teach!

I've seen numerous comps that have traded at 7.0% or below, but they are all larger properties (20+ units) and I don't have any smaller (less than 12 unit) comps.

Look at it this way, you are trading something that goes down in value for things that will go up in value!

Just to get started and get used to the trade.  

I think the gist is to lay out the responsibilities, ground rules, and the consequences for breaking those ground rules ahead of time.

This will give you a good idea as to what other properties are selling for, and consequently, whether the properties you are looking at are a good deal. 

There are just too many slices of pie in REI that one of the big downfalls is being a jack of all trades and master of none.