You have a great opportunity ahead of you and most people wish they were in your shoes.

We went ahead and did a 18 month lease to help us end the lease in a more favorable time of year and provide some stability on our first rental.

Just a heads up, I believe you have to be a managing broker in order to open a brokerage so your boss would need to take the steps mentioned not you.Additionally, just curious what your desire to open a brokerage is? 

Seems like there are several ways to approach this market, but I believe making "Aggressive" offers that are in line with the upcoming housing correction can allow you to be ahead of the curve when that drop actually happens.

At your age, you've got decades ahead of you, and decades for whatever you buy to appreciate.

Good tenant, good area, compensated fairly for them breaking lease plus you saying you wouldn't hold them and them communicating with you ahead of time I would let them go.

At least, I'll be coming out ahead. 

Your agent should be getting advance notice of properties “coming soon” to the market, so you can get a head start on analyzing them. 

From what I can tell from your picture you have decades of investing ahead of you.

Sounds like if I were to go ahead and invest in a larger multi-unit I need to prioritize setting up a solid team and ensuring I have plenty of reserves before engaging.