I am currently seeking to just manage the properties I have, I do not need to grow.

If you're in a growing market, you shouldn't have any qualms about raising rent 3% to 4% every year.Also, as far as wear/tear repairs ago, if you are going to be spending 15% to 20% of yearly rental rate on home improvements, it just means you are responsibly taking care of your asset.

@Rob Smith - all great points above.One thing that I didn't see mentioned is becoming a private lender for real estate investors.IMHO - this is the fastest way to grow you limited seed funds.You can easily charge 1-5 points PLUS 12-15% APR for short term loans that are secured by real estate.I personally use a handful of private lenders to fund my wholesale business [I don't do assignments, I close on each property before reselling].I never pay more than 65% LTV and give the lender a Promissory Note along with a Mortgage.  

They should have a core understanding of current business trends and set accurate expectations for objectives to grow revenue year over year.

There seems to be growing belief that there will be a deflation of prices this year due to big losses in VC funding for tech companies, but I'm curious as to how large a part of our economy that is.  

Let me put in perspective I am young Hispanic kid who grow up in the worst neighborhoods you could ever imagine.

I’d like to share our plan with you and see how we can both grow our companies and achieve our goals!

Plus it's always great to see the Cleveland community on here growing.

After all, I enjoy getting checks monthly - but it would nice to cash in a fat check once in while too.Question 2 - Networking is key to finding good deals - MLS can have some good deals periodically - but the best deals are going to come from a distressed situation that you find out about through word of mouth - and that means staying in front of your network and growing it so that you are exposed to new situations and opportunities.

Currently my idea is to find a small multi unit (duplex tri or quad) to buy with an FHA, live in one and rent out the others until I can pay down the mortgage enough to create a cash flow large enough to live on and be able to go into real estate full time and then grow from there.